All you ever wanted to know about trains but could never be bothered to ask. Huge history of how the railways came to be and how they changed us along the way. Definitely written by a fellow strongly biased towards trains, but who else would’ve done it? Worth the time.

A competent and wide-ranging history of the development of railways world-wide. ( )

An encyclopaedic account of the history of rail across the world. Wolmar skilfully weaves what the emergence of rail meant for countries in economic and social terms into the narrative. This is far from being a book for trainspotters only. Excellent. ( )

Blood, Iron and Gold is a wide-ranging historical overview of railways and their spread across the globe - starting from those humble cart-ways used by mines & quaries in the pre-industrial era, right through to the modern high speed networks proliferating in China today. In writing this book Christian Wolmar undoubtedly shows his passion for the subject without swamping the reader with overly technical details or dry ‘train spotter trivia'. I’d recommend this book to both the railway buff and those with just a general interest. ( )