Loyal readers will know that this newsletter loves a train trip, any train trip at all.
So when reader and fellow seaside villager William McCartney emailed his regrets for missing the Kia Kaha play by reason of being on a train in Central Asia having Type 2 fun, I immediately requested a travelogue.
He has obligingly responded with this, Episode 1, in which we set out for the Orient by first heading West with a suitably-jaded-barrister’s-eye-view of Russian skinheads, tourists of debatable quality and a train that can torture you.
