Early this year @port perran (http://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?action=profile;u=230) alerted this fiction series, which swmbo and I are enjoying :)
In the "Iron Horse" mention is made of "A history of the English Railway" being read by Madeleine (our hero's companion)
I have found a downloadable (copythingie free) version of it here :
https://archive.org/details/ahistoryenglish00englgoog
and downloadable pdf here :
https://archive.org/download/ahistoryenglish00englgoog/ahistoryenglish00englgoog.pdf