Tying in with a BBC2 series, this book comprises accounts of six international train adventures undertaken by well-known personalities. Chat-show host Clive Anderson travels from Hong Kong to Mongolia; ballerina Natalia Makarova from St Petersburg to Tashkent; anti-apartheid author Rian Malan from Cape Town to Bophutatswana; actor and former Monty Python man Michael Palin from Derry to Kerry; novelist Lisa St Aubin de Teran from Santos to Santa Cruz; and BBC reporter Mark Tully from Karachi to the Khyber Pass. By using rail as his or her means of transport, each author was able to meet the people of a continent and witness changing cultures on the journey.