PRESS CUTTING FROM THE JOURNAL, MAGAZINE OF THE CHARTERED INSTITUTE OF JOURNALISTS

The Ghost of the Cog-Wheel Railway

By John Szemerey

Published by Austin Macauley,

Hardback, £13.99, paperback, £10.99, 42 pages

Younger readers – or indeed grown-up readers who love railways and amusing ghostly puzzles – will be delighted by Institute member John Szemerey’s light-hearted tale of the supernatural from Hungary. The result of a story he told to his own family, Szemerey has created a superb story-book, the perfect Christmas gift, with excellent illustrations that help to set the mood (although there does not deem to be a credit to the artist).

The saga concerns the cogwheel railway line that serves the people who live on the hilly Buda side of Budapest, and the old train-driver, Zoltán, whose one aim in life – and the afterlife – is to maintain the rail service, no matter how much the appearance of an apparently driverless train scares the locals – and baffles the local police!

Passengers of the strange ghost-train also include a group of stray cats, the unruly feline presence adding to the head-scratching difficulties faced by the authorities.

They say that a sad tale is best for winter, yet this is most definitely one ghost-train which you can board in the full knowledge of there being a happy ending – with more than a few smiles along the track!

Stuart Millson

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