Dear subscriber
Such a long delay since the last newsletter, and therefore so much to say.
First, I have sent my book, The Liberation Line, the last untold story of the Normandy Landings to the publishers, Atlantic,, and you can pre-order signed copies from me for £25 post free – to reserve one of the initial copies, just send me an email to christian.wolmar@gmail.com and nearer the time I will send you my bank details. You will be among the first to get a copy, signed of course.
The book, which is due to be published on May 2nd, is the story of the railwaymen who rebuilt the lines after D Day, allowing the invasion of Northwestern Europe to be successfully completed. It is full of adventures of brave men repairing and running railways in very difficult conditions, and at its heart there is the story of how a 135 mile line was rebuilt in just three days with 10,000 men – as I have pointed out, HS2 is also around 135 miles long!
The podcast goes from strength to strength. We have now recorded nearly 40 editions, and the latest three can be found here, here and here. Meanwhile Rail has passed its milestone of 1,000 issues and you can read my columns in the 1000th commemorative issue along with the most recent ones in 1001, 1002 and 1003. Given the publication of the rail reform bill, the highly critical NAO report into the scrapping of the northern section of HS2 and the generally poor performance of the railways, there is no shortage of issues to cover.
I have also posted an article about my books and how I came to write them here
I have set up a number of talks on my new book some of which will be listed in the events section but here are details up to now:
April 25 Islington UA
May 7 Shrewsbury School, Surbiton
May 9 Owl Bookshop Kentish Town 6 30 pm – tickets from https://dauntbooks.co.uk/shop/events/christian-wolmar/
May 11 York Model Railway Society – details to follow
July 2 Bedford
July 8 Crystal Palace
July 9 Highgate
There will be others , which I will promote on Twitter and will send out newsletters nearer the time
Also, on May 13th I will be leading a walk around some of the City of London’s hidden stations and their history. You can sign up here via Eventbrite – hurry as it is selling fast.
And most important, I will be cycling around the Normandy Beaches for three days starting on D Day June 6th raising money for the armed forces charity SSAFA and guiding people to key destinations as well as giving talks on my book – you can join me by signing up here …or just donate by following this link
More newsletters to follow soon…
Christian Wolmar