Released 17.10.25

The Conversation

A journalist by training, Monisha Rajesh first made her name writing about her travels across India by train. Then came Around the World in 80 Trains: A 45,000-Mile Adventure, which was a National Geographic Traveller book of the year in 2020. This time, she takes us on a new long-distance rail adventure through the gloaming to revel in the joys (and fears) of sleeper trains in Moonlight Express: Around the World by Night Train, published by Bloomsbury.

The conversation, packed with Monisha’s signature wit and curiosity, weaves across Europe, following the route of the old Orient-Express to Turkey. She takes us behind close doors to reveal the secrets of the dining car, the quirks of border crossings, and the train that rolls on to a ferry to travel between mainland Italy and Palermo. She brings her children along for the ride on a journey north of the Arctic Circle, joins a press trip to the Andes, and tackles the British class system riding the poshest sleeper train of all, on a classic rail journey to Scotland. Monisha extols the intimacies that train travel can encourage with fellow passengers, but also refuses to let the romance of train travel erase her profound outrage at the genocidal events unfolding in Gaza. She and Sophy discuss how some travel writers embrace these wider issues of the times, and others avoid them. They talk about truth in travel writing, and the scandal surrounding allegations of dishonesty in Raynor Winn’s Salt Path.

Books discussed:

Monisha Rajesh
— Moonlight Express: Around the World by Night Train
— Around the World in 80 Trains: A 45,000-mile Adventure
— Around India in 80 Trains

Aria Akbar
— Wolf Moon: A Woman’s Journey Into the Night

Dan Richards
— Overnight: Journeys, Conversations and Stories After Dark

Raynor Winn
— The Salt Path

Films discussed:

— No Other Land