This is a good, and very short addition to the Penguin series (published in 2013) about the London subway lines.

It's filled with bits about the author's memories of yore but mainly, which is the theme this books circles, of the current fright he is experiencing while seemingly trapped 150 feet underground, completely unsure of what is happening as the train he's in isn't moving anywhere.

Dark and good. ( )

I’m still going with my reading of the Penguin Lines series. The short size and story length make these books great to carry around in a handbag in hope of extra reading time or as a short read between longer books. A Northern Line Minute falls into the latter category for me, as I read it in one sitting after finishing another novel. (I was also a little too lazy to get off the couch for another book).

This short story is a great one to read in one setting. It’s tense and well written, but with enough meanders into lighter subjects to stop the story from becoming particularly creepy. (A Northern Line Minute is not a book you would actually want to read on the Tube or Underground, particularly if there’s a whiff of smoke about). It’s told in the first person and grabs you from the moment the narrator tells you that they think they can smell smoke deep in the Underground. Should he get off the train at the next station or is it all a figment of his imagination? As the narrator ruminates on what may or may not be happening, he imparts a lot of information about the Northern Line and how it differs from some of the other Tube lines, being deeper. I found that part rather interesting.

Overall, I enjoyed this story and I’m eager to check out other works by William Leith.

http://samstillreading.wordpress.com ( )

Q: What IS a "Northern Line Minute"? A: When you're standing on the platform and the screen says that the next train will arrive in one minute, it invariably takes longer. The author uses this phrase throughout the book to refer to something that you expect to take a minute but in reality takes longer. Or something that takes longer than it should. This is a phrase that I think I might find useful.

William Leith, or the narrator of this book named William Leith, is a trembling mass of anxiety. When it comes to transportation, he's afraid of all forms of it, but in particular he's afraid of the London Underground. As you can imagine, this makes life cumbersome for someone who lives in London. In the opening we see the narrator tackling his fear and taking the Tube. As the doors of the carriage close, he smells smoke and launches himself into a stream of consciousness anxious monologue just to get himself through this journey. On the way from Belsize Park to Camden Town (that's two stops if you're not familiar with the Northern Line), he goes off on all sorts of tangents in an effort to distract himself. But he keeps coming back to the burning smell. Is it all in his head?

This 73 page book, which is pretty much one long paragraph, was fairly humorous and for the most part, interesting. Although it won't make my Top Five List for the year, I know that it will stay with me, and that the next time I'm in London and inevitably on the Northern Line, I will remember this book in detail.

Recommended for: it's very short and not much of a reading commitment. If you think it sounds like it might have potential, give it a try.

Cover comments: This sat on my counter yesterday and my daughter and husband separately both picked it up and said, "What an ugly cover!". I actually think the blurred picture of the roundel (that's the official name of that red and blue circle, btw) effectively expresses the author's existential angst. ( )

Like many people who live in London I prefer not to use the Underground, though sometimes it is unavoidable. When i do have to resort to travelling by Tube it is normally the northern Line that I find myself on, so I was particularly interested to see what William Leith had to say about it.

Leith makes it clear from the start of this short book (another in the Penguin series about the various London Underground Lines) that he is a nervous underground passenger , and it emerges that he had actually gone several years without travelling on the Tube. For the journey that he describes ion this book he forces himself to board the train, unsure whether he can smell something burning or whether he is imagining it. As the journey continues he becomes more convinced that there is something wrong. His anxiety isn't assuaged by the fleeting memories that come, uninvited, into his mind, all of them recounting a traumatic episode from his earlier life that was associated, to a greater or lesser degree, with a station on the Northern Line. He captures the sense of paranoia that every Norther Line habitue occasionally feels, and I certainly recognised a lot of his neuroses - I almost wish I hadn't read this.! ( )