Letting off steam

In most countries, steam engines went out with the ark. Not so in China. Over the last ten years, John Tickner, Gordon Edgar and Adrian Freeman have journeyed across the country photographing the world's last working steam railways. At times, the results look almost like model train sets, but this isn't Thomas the Tank Engine. These are grimy, workaday commercial engines, transporting people, coal and animals through landscape that is by turns run down and spectacular. Thanks to some well- documented economic growth, though, these steam-breathing steel dragons are on the way out here too - Chinese authorities have vowed to eradicate all steam locomotives before the 2008 Beijing Olympics. This book is a fitting and fond farewell.

Holly Kyte