Jenny Davies will mark the release of her book Beyond the Facade: Flinders Street, more than just a railway station next month.

The book details the railway station and its purposes beyond the concourse over its 100 years.

The official centenary of the station will be celebrated on January 22 next year.

Ms Davies spent about 18 months researching and writing the book.

She said her motivation was curiosity about the "big and glorious building".

"It was a love of the building and its prominence in Melbourne. And also the fact there has really been nothing written about it except a couple of paragraphs printed in tourism brochures.

"There's a huge amount of information that has

never been published."

Ms Davies said she felt relief when she first saw the finished book. "I got 2000 of the books printed and they ended up in 200 boxes delivered to my driveway. It was a bit overwhelming.

"I was really wanting it to be a pictorial, coffee-table type book that people could just flick through, so it was a very satisfied feeling to have produced something solid people could enjoy."

Ms Davies said talking to people about their memories of the station helped make her first experience as an author a "fantastic" one.

"I always felt I would write a book. I just wasn't sure what I would write it about. This one became important to do right now because of the centenary celebration coming up.

"I felt it was important to have some kind of celebration. I want this to be a catalyst for other things to come."

Beyond the Facade will be launched at Chapter Bookstore in Gisborne Village shopping centre on May 9. Ms Davies will sign copies from 11am before the official launch at 1pm.