author
Moses James Nobbs
b. 1817
A retired British mail coach guard turned his own working life into a vivid memoir of travel, danger, and change. His recollections open a window onto the last years of England's coaching era, just as railways were taking over.
1 Audiobook
About the author
Born in Norwich on May 12, 1817, he wrote from firsthand experience rather than from literary circles. In Old Coaching Days, he says he was born in Angel Street, Norwich, and that his father was a coach-builder connected with the mail coach trade.
His best-known book, Old Coaching Days: Some Incidents in the Life of Moses James Nobbs, the Last of the Mail Coach Guards, presents him as one of the final witnesses to a disappearing world. The memoir was published in 1891 and framed his story as the recollections of the "last of the Mail Coach Guards," told late in life as he was nearing retirement from postal service.
What makes his writing appealing is its directness: it preserves everyday details of nineteenth-century transport and postal work from someone who actually lived them. For listeners interested in working lives, travel history, and the human side of old Britain, his memoir offers an unusually personal view.