Britain gave railways to the world, yet its own network is the dearest (definitely) and the worst (probably) in Western Europe. Trains are deeply embedded in the national psyche and folklore - yet it is considered uncool to care about them. For Matthew Engel the railway system is the ultimate expression of Britishness. It represents all the nation's ingenuity, incompetence, nostalgia, corruption, humour, capacity for suffering and even sexual repression. To uncover its mysteries, Engel has travelled the system from Penzance to Thurso, exploring its history and talking to people from politicians to platform staff. Along the way Engel ('half-John Betjeman, half-Victor Meldrew') finds the most charmingly bizarre train in Britain, the most beautiful branch line, the rudest railwayman, and - after a quest lasting decades - an Individual Pot of Strawberry Jam. Eleven Minutes Late is both a polemic and a paean, and it is also very funny.

By the time Delaney Maxwell is pulled out of the waters of a frozen lake, her heart has stopped beating. But Delaney pulls through. Outwardly she has recovered, but she knows something is wrong. Delaney finds herself drawn to the dying, is her brain predicting death or causing it?

A Privileged Journey, Volume 1 1940-1962 is a personal and individual account of the author' youthful enthusiasm for trains and the travels he undertook in Great Britain and on the European continent as a student and management trainee of British Railways. It is illustrated by over 140 black and white photos, mostly taken by the author himself as a boy and student. The chapters cover the emergence of the young boy's interest in steam locomotives in particular, through his 'trainspotting' days to his numerous journeys in the late 1950s and early 1960s, with many accounts of locomotive performance supported by an extensive appendix of train 'logs'. Some of the chapters are much extended narratives from articles serialised in the UK enthusiast magazine, 'Steam World' over the last decade and are also based on ten hours of verbal interviews recorded by the UK National Railway Museum at York as part of their 'Oral History' archives supported by a UK National Lottery Grant.??The second volume, to be published at a later date, covering the period from 1962 to the current time, will describe his continuing interest and records while pursuing his career as stationmaster, area manager, train planner, Regional operating manager and finally Head of Safety before his retirement in 1996 and subsequent career as an international railway safety consultant.

No one said being a single mother was easy, but, after some difficult years, Sabrena Collins seemed to finally have it together. She had a good-paying job, two beautiful daughters who were growing up with love and security, and a wonderful friend who was more like the sister she never had. She even had a man in her life who was everything her ex-husband was not: kind, generous and caring. Everything seemed perfect—except for one thing. Steve said he loved her, but he was unreliable. There was more than one night when Sabrena would lie in bed, waiting for the phone to ring…alone and crying silent tears. But when Sabrena was in his arms and he looked at her with his melt-on-the-spot chocolate brown eyes, all the problems, the sleepless nights, the cold dinners, all of that was forgotten. And then, suddenly, Sabrena’s world was turned upside down by a simple visit that led her on a frightening and unfamiliar path, that led her to a truth passion and words of love could not erase, a truth that would change her life forever. A truth that would test her faith, her courage, her strength, and above all else, her love…