The Blackpool Highflyer

the blackpool highflyer

Andrew Martin grew up in Yorkshire. He has written for the
Guardian,
the
Daily Telegraph,
the
Independent on Sunday
and
Granta,
among many other publications. His highly acclaimed
first novel,
Bilton,
described by Jon Ronson as 'enormously
funny, genuinely moving and even a little scary', was followed
by
The Bobby Dazzlers,
which Tim Lott hailed as 'truly unusual
- a comic novel that actually makes you laugh'.

In praise of
The Necropolis Railway,
the first Jim Stringer
adventure, the
Evening Standard
said 'the age of steam has
rarely been better evoked', while the
Mirror
described the book
as 'a brilliant murder mystery'. This was followed by
The
Blackpool Highflyer
and
The Lost Luggage Porter.
The next books,
Murder at Deviation Junction
and
Death on a Branch Line,
were
shortlisted for the Ellis Peters Historical Novel Award and in
2008, Andrew Martin was shortlisted for the CWA Dagger in
the Library Award. The sixth book in the series,
The Last Train
to Scarborough,
was praised as 'thoroughly engaging and
entertaining' by the
Sunday Express.

Further praise for
The Blackpool Highflyer:

'An engagingly jaunty novel reminiscent of early H. G. Wells
or Arnold Bennett... An irrestistible excursion into a bygone
world of Wakes Week trips to Lancashire seaside resorts in
their breezy heyday, and an era when the railways were a
pride and pleasure, not a national disgrace.'
Peter Kemp,
Sunday Times
'Evokes Edwardian Yorkshire and Lancashire, their great
industrial prosperity and singular ways of living, quite bril­
liantly
in a historical whodunnit which for its fresh and stealthy
approach to past times deserves the adjective Bainbridgean.'
Ian Jack,
Guardian
(Books of the Year)

'Another atomospheric experience, a trip to a lost world in
amusing company.' Hugo Barnacle,
New Statesman

'A long, meticulously crafted hymn of praise to the age of
steam.' Gerard Woodward,
Daily Telegraph

'Absolute bliss from start to finish.'
Publishing News

'The Necropolis Railway
was exemplary historical crime fiction,
full of atmosphere, intrigue and striking characters. Railway­man Jim Stringer, the main character in that novel, returns in
The Blackpool Highflyer,
an equally enjoyable mystery . . .
What's particularly pleasurable about
The Blackpool Highflyer
is that Martin takes his time, evoking the period, the people
and the age of steam railway without losing the momentum
of the mystery.' Peter Guttridge,
Observer

'Marvellous.
..
With admirable economy [he] brings an increas­ingly distant society vividly and exhilaratingly to life.'
Sunday
Times

'A must for anyone into early Edwardian social history and
northern seaside culture, steam trains, ventriloquism, literary
thrillers and witty, incisive writing... The entire trip is enjoy­able, surprisingly educational and oozing with Edwardian
atmosphere.' Martin Radcliffe,
Time Out

'Terrific stuff
...
A ride to delight each and every discerning
reader.' Philip Oakes,
Literary Review

'A compelling thriller
. . .
Everything about this book rings
true, down to the last trivial, but fascinating, railway fact. A
stunning achievement.'
Daily Mail

faber
and faber

First published in 2004
by Faber and Faber Limited

Bloomsbury House
74-77 Great Russell Street
London
wcib 3da
This paperback edition published in 2005

Typeset by Faber and Faber Limited
Printed in the UK by CPI Bookmarque, Croydon,
CR0 4TD

All rights reserved
© Andrew Martin, 2004

The right of Andrew Martin to be identified as author of this work
has been asserted in accordance with Section 77 of the Copyright, Designs
and Patents Act 1988

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not,
by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise circulated
without the publisher's prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than
that in which it is published and without a similar condition including
this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser

A CIP record for this book
is available from the British Library

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank, in no special order, Geoff Felix, ven-
triloquial figure maker; Professor Colin Divall of the
National Railway Museum; The Blackpool Civic Trust; Peter
Charlton, for advice on music hall; Jennifer Pell of the Fred
Wade Bookshop, Halifax; Ron Johnson and Clive Groom,
ex-train drivers; Dr J.A. Hargreaves; Michael Farr, David Gel-
dard and Michael Stewart of the Transport Ticket Society;
The Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Society, especially
Chris Leach, Mike Fitton and Noel Coates; Conrad Varley
and the staff of the Queen Street Mill Museum, Burnley; Bob
Vaughton of the South Devon Railway; David White, Rouge
Croix Pursuivant at the College of Arms.

These people all supplied me with the hard facts which I
then, very frequently, bent.
by the same author

Bilton
The Bobby Dazzlers

IN THE JIM STRINGER, STEAM DETECTIVE SERIES:

The Necropolis Railway

The Lost Luggage Porter

Murder at Deviation Junction

Death on a Branch Line

The Last Train to Scarborough

Author's Note

This story is a product of the author's imagination, and has
no connection with anyone who might actually have worked
on the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, or lived in Halifax
or Blackpool in 1905, or given music hall performances in
those towns.

The vacuum was created, and we were ready for the road. As
we waited at Halifax Joint station for the starter signal, I sat
down on the sandbox and carried on reading yesterday's
Evening Courier,
which a cleaner had left on the footplate of our
engine. 'There are cheering reports of the weather from the
numerous seaside resorts, and indications that the Whitsun­tide holidays will be spent under the most pleasant conditions.
Yesterday was fine everywhere and in every way ...'

That would have been it, or something like, for the glass
had been rising steadily since the start of March. 'Enjoyable
sports at Thrum Hall,' I read. 'Everybody was in a happy
mood at Halifax Cricket Ground this morning ...'

I folded the paper and stood up. My driver, Clive Carter,
was standing on the platform below. Further below than
usual, for the engine that had been waiting for us at the shed
that morning was, by some miracle or mistake, one of Mr
Aspinall's famous Highflyers, number 1418. These were the
very latest of the monsters, and I hadn't reckoned on having
one under me for another ten years at least.

'Now don't break it,' John Ellerton, shed super, had said to
Clive and me that morning as he'd walked us over to it at six,
with the sweat already fairly streaming off us.

Atlantic class, the Highflyers were: 58
³
’
₄
tons, high boiler,
high wheel rims on account of 7-foot driving wheels, and
high
everything,
including speed. It was said they'd topped a
hundred many a time, though never yet on a recorded run.
They were painted black, like any Lanky engine, so it was a
hard job to make them shine, but you never saw one not
gleaming. The Lanky cleaners got half a crown for three
tank engines, but it was three bob for an Atlantic, and that
morning Clive had given the lad an extra sixpence a hexagon
pattern on the buffer plates.

The sun was trying to force its way through the glass roof of
the platform, making a greenhouse of the place. Next to Clive
was a blackboard on which the stationmaster himself, Mr
Knowles, had written, '
special train
', it said, then came
heaps of fancy underlinings, followed by '
S
unday 11th june,
hind's mill whit excursion to blackpool'.

After writing it, Knowles had turned on his heel and walked
off. He might have given me a nod; I couldn't say. I'd nodded
back of course, just in case. I'd heard that Knowles had started
at the Joint by redrawing all the red lines in all the booking-on
ledgers so as to shorten the leeway for lateness, and there he
was: marked down for ever as hard-natured. But I thought he
was all right. He knew his job. If he wanted a word with the
guard of a pick-up goods, he'd be waiting on the platform
exactly where the van came to rest. If the brass bell wanted shin­ing he knew it,
and
just where the nearest shammy was kept.