The English Channel: sailed across by the wise and stately; flown over by the rash and foolish.

For many years I held that belief. I spouted it widely, to ever-narrowing minds. Then, like all the other demented dictums and moist-eyed theories you concoct as a teenager, I dumped it.

I still think it’s silly to fly over the Channel. What changed was the arrival, in 1994, of a third option.

What sort of person, I now wondered, chose to travel under the sea by train? More to the point, who had the means to do such a dazzling thing?

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