When I visit a country for the first time and like it, I expect to be able to encourage other people to visit it. Burma presents a trickier problem. There are those who argue that the country’s military government is so repressive that we should not go there at all. Others, heard perhaps less often, [...]

Speaking of railways, here’s the station at Katha, in Burma, the town George Orwell turned into Kyauktada in Burmese Days. Some people on that platform had been waiting as long as 20 hours. They look a lot happier than the average British commuter.

The demolition this week of “the Jungle”, the migrants’ camp near Calais, reminded me of a piece I’ve included in Last Call for the Dining Car: The Telegraph Book of Great Railway Journeys, which is due out from Aurum on October 22.
Trawling the archives and making a choice has consumed all my free time over [...]