M y regular email arrived this morning from the dictionary publishers Collins with a ‘Spanish word of the day’. They missed a trick. The word is ‘huelga’, which refers to ‘a common phenomenon in some Latin American countries’.  The email gives examples of how to use huelga in relation to doctors, teachers and dancers — [...]

Our package on the book is now up on the Telegraph site, combining a shortened version of my introduction, a few extracts and a greatly extended playlist of songs about trains (and the tube). Thanks again for all the suggestions.

Desert Island Discs is a programme that encourages introspection and self-indulgence. The illustrator Jan Pienkowksi turned it on its head this morning. His first disc was the Beatles’ Eleanor Rigby, chosen not for what it meant to him but for “all the lonely people on all the other desert islands”.

Once a fortnight — shame it’s not more often — Laura Barton writes the Hail, Hail, Rock’n’Roll column on the back page of The Guardian’s Film & Music section. Last Friday she was reflecting on what the river, the road and the railway have given to rock music.
That set me thinking about what I’d choose [...]

Boston.com, the website of the Boston Globe, has a great set of pictures on the theme of autumn.