MATTHEW HAWKINS applauds a psychotherapist’s disection of William Blake
The case for the railways
WILL PODMORE welcomes a demonstration of the incomparable virtues of rail travel, and the political obstacles to realising its potential
RATIONAL FUTURE: Passenger and freight train on the West Coast Main Line in Warwickshire, England
[G-Man/CC] 
New releases from Christina Alden and Alex Patterson, Odette Michell, Clementine Lovell
JOHN GREEN is fascinated by a very readable account of Britain’s involvement in South America
Strip cartoons used to be the bread and butter of newspapers and they have been around for centuries. MICHAL BONCZA asks our own Paul Tanner about which bees are in his bonnet
GORDON PARSONS acknowledges the authority with which Sarah Kane’s theatrical justification for suicide has resonance today
RON JACOBS welcomes a timely homage to one of the IWW and CPUSA’s most effective orators
How the railways will fix the future: rediscovering the essential brilliance of the iron road
Gareth Dennis, Repeater, £10.99
IN this splendid book, railway engineer Gareth Dennis urges the vital importance of railways. As he argues, public transport does not need inventing. We’ve solved the technology challenges for urban and long-distance transport, just as we have solved the problems of getting clean water and generating electricity.
We have all the skills and tools we need to solve our problems. All we lack is the political will, not the technological capability. He asks, should the railways be nationalised? And answers, yes, absolutely, but adds that this is only the first small step on a much larger journey.
The idea that there can be meaningful competition in a complex network like the railways is bizarre. Railways should not be competing with each other. Their real competition is with road and air.
More from this author
WILL PODMORE peruses a new history of the opening weeks of conflict between Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia
WILL PODMORE recommends an excellent and useful introduction to a lesser-known giant of the scientific revolution in Britain
WILL PODMORE is enthralled by the convincing case that guilds of Islamic craftsmen were responsible for the European gothic style
WILL PODMORE is intrigued by a study the British ruling class that follows statistical analysis with totally inadequate proposals for change
