The 21st century commuter is a tragic hero. Long-suffering, longjourneying and subject to lengthy delays, he survives through an iron will and by burying his head in a freesheet.

Chris Moss’s Smoothly from Harrow takes its title from John Betjeman, the bard of Metro-land, but brings the world of the London commuter up to date with facts and fictions, poems and propaganda, statistics and self-help advice. Did you know that John le Carré, Mrs Beeton and Henry VIII were commuters? Did you know Waterloo station ‘processes’ more than 94 million passengers a year? Did you know that you are not just a number, but a modern-day, latte-drinking flâneur – London’s key witness, greatest survivor and chief psychogeographer?

This compendium will help you get through the dawns and dusks of your eternal, everyday, Herculean trial: to get to work and back.