Weeping Waters: When Train Meets Volcano

Benedict le Vay’s latest book Weeping Waters: When Train Meets Volcano is an extraordinary achievement — a meticulously researched and almost forensic reconstruction of one of the 20th century’s worst rail disasters — largely forgotten outside New Zealand — that comes up with a convincing new theory as to why the 151 people on that train died. Bringing the people and railways of exactly 60 years ago this Christmas Eve back to life, he works towards the nail-biting crescendo of the Tangiwai disaster …