"Some things that humans make transcend their function; instruments can be magical. That explosive, rhythmic sound we call says more to us about getting under way, about departure, than a can ever do; perhaps it has something close to the beat of our pulse. Even if we were using up and heating the earth too much, and no-one knew that at the time, it would have been worth making an exception for steam engines. They were beautiful machines; the most beautiful machines produced in the ."

"burnt in a furnace surrounded by water created ; steam confined in a cylinder pushed a , and linked to wheels by rods that turned the straight thrust of the piston into rotatory motion, the moved and worked. The idea that hordes of people and commodities could be carried at such shockingly powerful speeds by a sort of articulated kettle, in which the water could never be allowed to fall below the top of the furnace or there would be an explosion, seemed amazing to me. What made it all so different from today's s, which run at set speeds, was the need to be aware at every moment of the perilous balance of fire and water, which also gave the possibility of going a little faster if the engineman was good, or of disaster if he was incompetent."

"visited Thailand many times after that, and did charitable work for the surviving Asian labourers, many of whom were unable to return home to India or after the war and dragged out miserable lives in villages near the railway; and he opened a temple of peace on the , and spoke out against . It all seemed admirable, but I read about these things with a surprising sense of detachment. I had expected to feel some more powerful emotion, but apart from the eerie feeling of being present at my own torture as an onlooker I felt empty. And I wondered at his feeling that he had been forgiven. God may have forgiven him, but I had not; mere human forgiveness is another matter."

"Sometime the hating has to stop."

"Watch ', which goes on general release in the new year, and you'll leave the cinema feeling you know all about the complicated, scarred individual at its centre: , who was and eventually rescued from his torment through the love of his wife . But there are three names you won't hear during the film: those of Nan, Eric's first wife, and Linda and Charmaine, his daughters. The four of them were a family for 37 years yet they are completely missing from the film, which stars , and ."

"Mr. Lomax, who was born in Scotland, was 19 when he joined the in 1939. He was one of thousands of British soldiers who surrendered to the Japanese in . Many were relocated to Thailand and forced to build the , also known as the Death Railway. ... Mr. Lomax was repeatedly beaten and interrogated after his captors found a radio receiver he had made from spare parts. Multiple bones were broken and water was poured into his nose and mouth. One of his constant torturers stood out: , an interpreter. ... ... He learned that after the war Mr. Nagase had become an interpreter for the Allies and helped locate thousands of graves and mass burial sites along the Burma Railway."