Steam in the Family

by Avril Rowlands (softback, http://avrilrowlands.co.uk, 362pp, buy from Amazon £11.20 or Kindle edition £4.50, ISBN 978 0 9930080 6 1). REMEMBER God's Wonderful Railway, the eight-part BBC TV series from 1980 which followed three generations of the Grant family who work on the Severn Valley branch of the GWR?

The author has written another GWR novel based around the shed at Acton Chalcote and young Tom Waktins, who followed his father Fred on to the footplate – not what might be predictably expected, the realisation of every schoolboy's dream to be an engine driver... but only because he thinks his family expect it of him. Then Fred's daughter, who is determined not to marry a railwayman, meets a passed fireman…

The author, a playwright, acknowledges assistance from the late GWR drivers Les Dearson, of Tyseley shed, and Sam Essex, of Didcot, and former Severn Valley general manager Alun Rees for their inspirational help in producing this publication.

MARVELLOUS STEAM-ERA FICTION