Riding Route 94: An Accidental Journey through the Story of Britain

Yes. A good well-written well-observed round-up of Brexiting Britain. The insights ring true although not very surprising. Occasional humour too.He is good on the history of the places he visits and on describing the present landscape. I would maybe have liked a few more conversations with people in the local communities that he visits. Although maybe that is not surprising as on many buses he is the only passenger.

Not the kind of travel book I was expecting. To drawn out .

This is a fabulous book! My son bought this for part of my Christmas present.I am a bus enthusiast, but this isn't about buses, really, and no interest in buses is required, not a jot.McKie has a vast wealth of knowledge, easily and subtly dispensed through anecdote, local legend, conversation and in the general lubrication which permeates his text.The writer has an extremely acute eye and ear, his travels always reveal much fascinating detail. I found him an interesting and genial travelling partner. Given the widespread nature of his journeys, I expected some journeys to be less gripping than others, but this was not the case at all.The writing style is approachable, inviting and assured, a high intellect underpins the book, obviously. Given the writer was/is a Guardian journalist, I expected a liberal, left-wing stance, but, given I'm not really of that persuasion nowadays, though elements are still strongly in my experiential DNA, I thought it would be too political and "right on." It wasn't.A notice another reviewer was somewhat bored, I think that rather reflects the reader, not the writer, I cannot see how someone could not be enchanted and informed by this book. They thought it was a travel book. It isn't a travel book, really, though travel is the mediating factor, it is a book about people, places, beliefs, societies and society - two different things.It is, I my view, a cold and dull heart and mind which does not and cannot respond with enthusiasm to this book.I commend it unreservedly to all people with an active mind and a desire to think about our country and the things which make it a strange and rather compelling place to live.

Haven’t finished reading it yet, however I’ve enjoyed it so far.

The author is a writer and ex journalist. This book is a wise, witty and and informative account of what is happening in those parts of Britain that seldom get a mention in the media or in Parliament. it concerns his bus journeys in 2015. It has echoes of his delightful book, Great British Bus Journeys.Here, as in that book, he gives us insights into the lives of ordinary people. It, for example, sheds light on why a small majority voted to leave the EU.He visits Gloucester, Birmingham, Leicester, Cardiff, Brigg, Gateshead, and finally travels at night from Edinburgh to London by bus.As an former Guardian journalist he is a fervent supporter of the manual working class. He loves pubs and their names. Their decline is mourned. Another of his loves is proper bookshops. He says the trouble with Amazon is you can't smell the books.McKie reflects while on the journey to Victoria coach station on what he regards as the alienation from government at every level.. Brexit he says proved this. Furthermore, he argues that London is a disunited capital of an ever more disunited Kingdom.You may not agree with him that all is gloom and doom but you will enjoy his company on any bus with the number 94.

Here is a distinctive, thought-provoking and thoroughly enjoyable book: a portrait of the nation that is also a hymn to the pleasures and travails of public transport. Even more than trains, buses bring the traveller close to what places are actually like: town centres, outer suburbs, country lanes, everything in between - and the ordinary and not-so-ordinary people who make use of them.As a seasoned journalist with deep non-metropolitan roots, David McKie covers this territory with aplomb. His decision to do so by sampling only bus routes numbered 94 (with a few variants, 394 and 694 and so on, where routes have been renumbered) is close to genius. Well-informed, historically aware and endlessly curious, he is the ideal travelling companion, even in what may seem unpromising territory.Just one example. The Trinity Centre in Gateshead, a huge Brutalist structure topped by a multi-storey car park, has been covered by countless writers and bloggers before, during and after its demolition in 2010. Most of these accounts mention that the car park features in the 1971 film 'Get Carter'. So far, so familiar. But McKie actually goes to Gateshead (94 bus, naturally), and sees what has been built in its place. He finds out who built it, and where the money came from. He asks local people what they think of it. He puts the story in the book, for you to make up your own mind. But first you must buy this excellent book.

An ideal book for short but interesting change of places.