'Ever since childhood ... I have seldom heard a train go by and not wished I was on it'

First published more than thirty years ago, Paul Theroux's strange, unique, and hugely entertaining railway odyssey has become a modern classic of travel literature. Here Theroux recounts his early adventures on an unusual grand continental tour. Asia's fabled trains -- the Orient Express, the Khyber Pass Local, the Frontier Mail, the Golden Arrow to Kuala Lumpur, the Mandalay Express, the Trans-Siberian Express -- are the stars of a journey that takes him on a loop eastbound from London's Victoria Station to Tokyo Central, then back from Japan on the Trans-Siberian. Brimming with Theroux's signature humor and wry observations, this engrossing chronicle is essential reading for both the ardent adventurer and the armchair traveller.

First published in 1975

Other titles by Paul Theroux:

• Ghost Train to the Eastern Star: On the Tracks of the Great Railway Bazaar (2008)
• The Old Patagonian Express: By Train Through the Americas (1980)
• Riding the Iron Rooster: By Train Through China (1988)
• Dark Star Safari: Overland from Cape to Cairo (2003)