I used to be a teacher, but I now spend much of my time
writing, a choice that might raise an eyebrow amongst my old school friends.
With my grade 9 fail for English literature at “O” level behind me, I had
hardly announced my eventual activity of choice very
convincingly. I hadn’t read the set text - though I had seen it dramatised on
telly, so I thought I might just scrape by. I think it was Great Expectations,
which, although they were obviously somewhat misplaced in this instance, just
about summed up my approach. I’m hoping that I have upped my game during the
intervening half century or so.
Instead of revising for exams, and when I wasn’t
playing football, I went train spotting. In so doing, I sowed the seeds for a
lifelong interest in railways. However, it was still an accident of history
that started me off as a writer. I inherited a splendid collection of previously
unpublished Victorian photographs that survived from the Priestley family
business [1856-1938]. Years earlier, I had promised my dad that I would eventually
make a book out of them, which I did, and I dedicated it to his memory. I was
then on a roll which took me straight back to the trains, as I remembered them
in the 1960’s.
I’m going to use my blog to defend our hobby from
trivialisation and promote our fine railway heritage, but I will no doubt also
be drawn in to commenting on changes to both the current preservation set-up
and the national network. I will concentrate my efforts on my areas of special
interest – steam locomotives, railway art and the railwayana scene in general. I’m
also keen to discuss how we can most effectively tell the story of Britain’s railways
to future generations, in museums, out on the tracks and in the media.
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