A Northern Line Minute by William Leith: Book #23 for 2013
William Leith narrates this autobiographical story, telling of how he stepped onto a Northern Line train and started to sense that something was wrong. As the account continues, you can tell that something bad is going to happen and this is what the whole story is building up to.
I found myself feeling sorry for the author immediately, because he is evidently claustrophobic, and talks a lot about how anxious he gets when he uses the London Underground, and he talks a lot about his relief when he gets to the end of his journey, and how he wishes he hadn't decided to go one stop further. The depictions of how other people behave on the train are all very vivid, and it made me feel almost like I was there.
The book was written well, occasionally going off on tangents about other aspects of the author's life, and there was some good use of humour at times that put me in mind of Bill Bryson. I liked the way that the narrative built up to the climax.
This is one of a series of twelve books that has been written about different lines on the London Underground.