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'As the train started to move I ran alongside smiling and waving... that was the last time I saw my mother': Presenter Petroc Trelawny revisits his native Cornwall, recalling his love affair with trains and the bittersweet memories they evoke

In a poignant and heartfelt memoir, presenter Petroc Trelawny revisits Cornwall, the land of his childhood, recalling his love affair with trains and the bittersweet memories they evoke.

Exciting though the Falmouth branch-line was, it was the idea of the night train that thrilled me most – an express pressing ever onwards through the small hours, passengers at rest while the lamp on the locomotive lit up a seemingly infinite ribbon of cold steel track. The small cake of medicated soap issued to passengers would become an object of minor veneration, never actually used to wash, as that would destroy the double arrows of the British Rail logo stamped into the surface of the bar. We would visit Bourdeaux's Bakery at Praze and buy cheese and chutney or ham and egg rolls, with cans of brightly colour fizzy drink and sweet, greasy almond slices to eat after.

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