Moonlight Express: Monisha Rajesh on the Magic of Night Trains

In this conversation recorded live at Shakespeare and Company, travel writer Monisha Rajesh talks about her new book Moonlight Express: Around the World by Night Train . From Paris to Istanbul, Scotland to India, the United States to Lapland, Rajesh explores the romance and realities of sleeper trains—where the carriages, the landscapes, and above all, the people become the story. She shares how her love of rail travel began in India, why night trains are enjoying a resurgence amid the climate crisis, and what it means to travel as a woman, a mother, and a writer in a turbulent world. Alongside the practicalities of packing eye masks and hot water bottles, Rajesh reflects on the communities that form in dining cars, the unexpected intimacy of train travel, and the way technology, politics, and global events shape the journeys we take. Buy Moonlight Express: Monisha Rajesh is a British journalist whose writing has appeared in Time magazine, the New York Times, and Vanity Fair. Her first book, Around India in 80 Trains, was named one of the Independent’s best books on India. Her second book, Around the World in 80 Trains, won the National Geographic Traveller Book of the Year and was shortlisted for the Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year. In 2024 she was named in Condé Nast Traveller’s Women Who Travel Power List. She lives in London. Adam Biles is Literary Director at Shakespeare and Company. Listen to Alex Freiman’s latest EP, In The Beginning: Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You can listen to Moonlight Express: Monisha Rajesh on the Magic of Night Trains online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Moonlight Express: Monisha Rajesh on the Magic of Night Trains is an episode from Shakespeare and Company by Shakespeare and Company.

This episode is 58:35 long.

This episode was published on Sep 17, 2025.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from Shakespeare and Company when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.