About eight years ago, maybe a little under, an English writer living in Western France got in touch.
He had spent half a decade researching then writing a book about Locomotion Number One (LNO), the first steam locomotive to haul a passenger train on a public railway, the Stockton and Darlington Railway (S&DR).
Now I’m from Darlington, where LNO made its maiden journey, and my favourite novels are factual with creative flourishes.
I love reading them and I adore copy-editing them.
Trains being by far my favourite form of transport, when author Tony Stowers suggested I visit nearing editorial completion, I booked tickets.
Huddersfield—Leeds—London KX—St Pancras International—Lille—Nantes.
We (the passengers – I was travelling on my own) were stuck under the English Channel for two hours.
At Lille, thousands of desperate passengers swarmed round a single platform guard, southbound connections long gone.
Thankfully, a Canadian traveller discovered the last train to Paris was leaving right now down the stairs.
Thank feck for bilingual speakers.
A small knot of disparate travellers clattered down to the platform and fell into the nearest vacant seats.
They were plump seats.
Generous to the wide of beam (me).
First class, in fact.
At Gare du Nord, there was an unexpected dash through a rainy Parisian Saturday night to Montparnasse: the Métro between the two hubs hadn’t been in action for some weeks.
Thank feck for our Canadian.
Now for the trains needed to reach Nantes.
By this stage, we only settled for first class.
An astonishing journey I look on with great fondness.
I had yet to meet my author.
You’re not just getting your book copy-edited: you’re getting 43 years of editing experience by a method actor.
