Flying Scotsman: The Extraordinary Story Of The World's Most Famous Locomotive

Description

'Her spirit lives on - and Roden has brought it back, wreathed in clouds of nostalgic steam' The Times Andy Roden's book on Flying Scotsman has been a big sales success - a combination of a subject that is an icon of British engineering, a superbly readable narrative, and a stunning period-style cover. It is now released in paperback. The other great selling point for this book is the true story of this engine. It is a remarkable tale in its own right: saved from scrap in the sixties, breaking the London-Scotland steam speed record, trans-navigating the USA and nearly marooned there when its owner went bust, travelling to Alice Springs in the heart of Australia, and then rescued for the nation in the nick of time. When the locomotive itself finally emerges from its restoration at the National Railway Museum in 2009 or 2010 there will be a huge wave of publicity from which the book can only benefit. In the meantime the sales of the paperback of Aurum's previous steam engine title, Mallard - 5000 in 6 months, and counting - are indicative of the likely performance for Flying Scotsman. Andrew Roden is a Contributing Editor to International Rail Journal and also the author of The Duchesses (Aurum 978 1 84513 369 6). He led the successful campaign to save the Cornish sleeper train in 2005. He lives in Falmouth, Cornwall.

Author description

Andrew Roden is a railway journalist and campaigner now based in Cornwall. He has worked on a range of railway magazines over the past decade from RAIL to Hornby Magazine and the prestigious International Railway Journal as Contributing Editor. In 2005 he led the campaign to save the 'Night Riviera' sleeper train to Cornwall from closure. He is author of the highly successful books 'Flying Scotsman', 'A History of the Great Western Railway' and 'The Duchesses', all published by Aurum.