Stop & Examine
Confessions of a platform Barista.
A middle-aged single mother of three, Joanna Murray was “broke and broken-hearted” when she threw her all into starting up her coffee shop.
Within a year she’d made it a great success. And now she has told her story in Confessions of a Barista On Platform 1.
The true story of her tiny coffee shop on the London-bound platform of St Leonards Warrior Square station in East Sussex, it portrays an eccentric community, and how Joanna ( pictured below) unwittingly became a therapist to her customers - and how they, in turn, changed her life for the better.
“From behind the counter of this provincial train station coffee shop, Joanna was barista and unofficial shrink to wildly varied London-bound travellers,” writes author Laline Paull.
Confessions of a Barista On Platform 1 was published on February 9 by The Firle Press ( www.thefirlepress.co.uk).
And it is not the only newly published, railway-connected book. In
Steam Reminiscences - Southern, John Beckett steams his way through his personal archive of images taken from the halcyon days of steam on the Southern region’s railways.
He travels across the south from Kent all the way to Cornwall, and in doing so he spans the years from 1956 right up to the end of the steam era in 1968. His hand-picked collection of images gives a 128page first-hand account of life on the railways - the locomotives, the freight and the rolling stock.
Finally, occasional RAIL contributor Benedict Le Vay’s latest book is Scotland from the Rails (available from Bradt Guides at www.bradtguides.com).
Scotland’s rail network boasts the highest main line summits in Britain, the longest bridge, the longest and boldest spans; and a host of attractive and sometimes quirky station buildings.
From the East Coast to the Great North, and the West Highland Line to the Skye Railway, rail enthusiast Benedict provides a guide to what you can see from your carriage, as well as travel tips, local history and practical advice on food and where to stay.