A MANOR Park author has chosen Stratford International to be the star of his first book.

The station, which opened just over a year ago despite building work finishing three years earlier, takes pride of place in Richard Neville-Carl�’s book.

Charting the railway line from St Pancras to Folkestone, the amateur photographer’s work captures the diversity of the route from inner-city London to the Kent countryside and the Channel Tunnel both in words and pictures.

Richard, from Little Ilford Lane, started taking pictures of the line in 2003 and only finished when Stratford International opened and he could shoot South Eastern and Eurostar trains coming through.

Despite spending almost four decades taking pictures, trying to capture the high-speed trains rushing through the station also provided a big challenge.

He said: “It is like perpetually facing a fast bowler. It was like standing in goal with Cristiano Ronaldo about to take a penalty in front of you.”

He told the Recorder he had always been a railway enthusiast, stemming from his work as a town planner, from which he is now semi-retired.

The 55-year-old had already taken his hobby to France to photograph trains on the other side of the Channel but it was the announcement of plans for a high-speed railway to the continent that prompted him start the project.

Richard said: “The railway was new and the trains were the fastest in Britain. There was something new and wonderful for a photographer.”

He thinks the line will have a big influence on Newham’s economy and population.

“It will shape Newham’s future more when the shops and offices of Stratford City and the Olympic Park are finished.”

But it was only when he put all the photos together in an electronic album that he thought “this could make a book”.

St Pancras to Folkestone, by Middleton Press, came out on November 30. Richard’s next project will be a book on the line between Shenfield and Ipswich.

To find out more visit www.middletonpress.co.uk