A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK
I
44 T is hoped the book may be of interest," says a covering note from the Railway Executive. Your British Railways, the publication to which the note refers, is not, as a matter of fact, what educated people call a book, being, rather, a large, glossy brochure which sells- (or anyhow is on sale) at station bookstalls for 2s. A foreword, entitled "About This Book," is remarkable chiefly for the care with which it eschews all reference to nationalisation: "the benefits of unification are becoming every day more apparent" is a statement which, though disput- able, is slightly easier to swallow than it would have been if the correct terminology had been used. There are some quite good photographs of locomotives. and other equipment, but the taste- less, breezy complacency of the whole publication is adequately illustrated by the caption to a photograph of a lorry driver beaming at the camera as he bends over his starting-handle: " Self-Starter ? Kid Stuff ! The Truck Driver gives his engine a swing to conserve his battery." Your British Railways is, in short, the sort of thing that only a Public Relations staff could have produced, and I doubt whether the printing of even so modest a total as 25,000 copies ranks among the benefits of unification. It is, incidentally, usual, and indeed I believe obligatory by law, for anyone who publishes a book to put their name on it ; the Railway Executive have omitted to do this.
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