Paperback review: Walk the Lines, By Mark Mason

“The running total is 171.1 miles, not quite halfway,” groans Mason after the District Line, though this reader had the thought that no one forced him to do an overground trek of the Underground.

Much of his book's appeal depends on how interested you are that, for example, Westminster Cathedral contains more bricks than the Empire State Building or that Britain's first municipal lavvy opened in 1855 near Bank station. Telling his partner Jo that “Gant's Hill is the most easterly below-ground station”, Mason adds, “She wasn't very far from stabbing me.”