There’s something special about reading in a railway carriage. Perhaps it’s the rhythm of the ‘faster than fairies, faster than witches’ carriages rattling along as you read, or maybe it’s the way the countryside unrolls like a plot as you go. We have a particular penchant for reading a railway-based book on a train journey. So we’ve matched a few books with a few train journeys to inspire you. Think of it like a cheese and wine pairing, but with choo-choos and words.
Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone
Read it: on any train from platform nine or ten at King’s Cross, London.
Bring with you: Chocolate Frogs and Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans.
If you can’t locate Platform nine-and-three-quarters simply enjoy chugging out of this magnificent station, pretending you’re on your way to Hogwarts for the first time.
Murder on the Orient Express
Read it: on the Istanbul to Paris line via Belgrade.
Bring with you: a pipe and a handkerchief embroidered with the letter H.
Get your little grey cells to work as you relive the great age of steam through Agatha Christie’s 1934 crime novel.
The Railway Children
Read it: On the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway at Oakworth Railway Station.
Bring with you: Apple Pie (for breakfast). How perfectly ripping.
Feel your heart swell with a love of steam as you read the immortal opening line: ‘They were not Railway Children to begin with.’
Strangers on a Train
Read it: On a train from New York to Texas
Bring with you: a good alibi.
Eye up your fellow passengers and mull over which might be best at committing the perfect murder while you settle into Patricia Highsmith’s fabulous 1950 thriller.
The Girl on the Train
Read it: on a commuter train from Buckinghamshire to Euston.
Bring with you: gin in a tin for the journey home.
Nose in a few kitchens and back gardens as you pass through suburbia and enjoy making up backgrounds for the lives of the people whose houses you pass. There’s nothing like a train for people-watching.
The picture above by Andreas Von Einsiedel is from our Home Tour feature in our June issue - a house built around a railway carriage! If you like the idea of escaping to a railway carriage for a weekend, you might like to know you can stay in the house itself, The Bolthole, in Pagham, West Sussex.
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