The London Train
A blog by Judith Greenberg, Vintage publicist
Last week I had one of those delightful publicity expeditions to a rather windswept Cardiff for the launch of the wonderful new novel by Tessa Hadley, The London Train. As I was really rather excited about travelling in the footsteps of the amazing dual protagonists of the novel I thought I would document the trip with a few random snaps.
The London Train is a novel in two parts linked together by the meeting of the two main characters on the Cardiff to London train. Reviewers have loved it but it has also got me thinking about train journeys in general and railway meetings in particular. We seem to have a timeless fascination with these sorts of brief encounters and also with the romance of a train journey through the sunlight country or the twinkly night. So for a few hours last night camera in hand I thought I would document this instance of life (not quite) imitating art. On the right is the lovely book itself displayed so nicely by the good people from Blackwells.
The venue was the Millenium Centre in Cardiff. This rather lovely instillation on the left caught my eye.
A little impromptu introduction by yours truly. I’m a little shorter than Tess so adopted a variety of poses to make myself audible.
The star of the show, Tessa reading to her adoring fans. Also looking slightly less overpowered by the mic.
Tessa signing a good old fashioned hardback...
This one is pretty self explanatory I hope...
Better dash the train is almost here. Please note the amazing birds here not disimilar to the pigeons on the front of the book.
Here I am on the platform. The important part here is the Cardiff sign in the background, but the nice person who took this was not as aware of that, hence my prominence.
On this particular occasion I met a stranger quite set on giving me a lift to my next destination, I politely declined, chalked it up to Welsh hospitality and as you can see thoroughly enjoyed the rest of my mini, mini break but what are your favourite railway stories? Do you have any wonderful train pictures to share? Friendships or romances struck up on a locomotive?
Post your comments and we’ll send the best a copy of The London Train.