Benedict le Vay was a national newspaper sub-editor who worked in four continents but wrote his first book, Eccentric Britain, more or less by accident after collecting oddities about his home country. He was ‘staggered’ by the response, which included media attention from the Shetland Times to Gulf Radio and publicity tours in America and New Zealand. Describing himself as a frankly rather ordinary father of two, Ben was hard-pressed to think of anything particularly eccentric about himself. ‘At a push, I’d say, yes, I’m Honorary Secretary of the Friends of A272, and I’ve asked for my ashes to be blasted from the chimney of my favourite steam locomotive at my funeral. Hasn’t everybody?’
Ben went on to write Eccentric guides to London, Oxford, Cambridge and Edinburgh and two acclaimed 'window-gazers' guides', Britain from the Rails and Scotland from the Rails.
Benedict le Vay died in December 2022.