A strong 4.5 for this entertainingly written history of the London Underground by a Tube-enthusiast who's neither a native Londoner nor someone who has worked on the network. His interested sprouted from a boyhood fascination with the underground trains when he would visit from York for the day and it was many years later as a London-based journalist that his editing of the Tube Talk column in the London newspaper Evening Standard cemented some deep rooted love for the London Underground.

Beginning at a time when tunnelling underground seemed like fantasy and taking us all the way to proposed future developments, Martin digs deep into the social and political reasons - and perhaps more importantly the people - that pioneered the network that is now the London Underground. While the stories of the people behind the lines and their extensions, were fascinating it was Martin's ease with language and his plucky use of words to describe characters, decisions and developments involved in creating subterranean London that made the books such a joy to read.

Not wanting to give away any of the twists and turns of the London Underground's history, let it simply be said that it made the city of London what it is now. I have a new found respect for the tube. In fact, a conversation the author had with a woman working in the gift shop at the London Transport Museum very accurately describes how I, as a Londoner, now feel about the Underground.

"Let's face it, when you're train's late, you've got the hump. But when you stand back and look at the system it's something incredible isn't it?"

The missing 0.5 is just because I wanted a few more personal stories about using the London Underground over the last few centuries. Maybe that's the topic of his next book... I hope so!