Orient-Express: A Personal Journey - Hardcover

James Sherwood; Ivan Fallon

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1849541876 ISBN 13: 9781849541879

Publisher: Robson Press, 2012

Synopsis

In May 1977 the French national railways announced they were taking the Orient- Express, the world s most fabled train, out of service. The public outcry which followed caught the attention of Jim Sherwood. The last remaining four carriages, which had featured in the film Murd er on the Ori ent-Expr ess , were auctioned by Sotheby s in Monte Carlo, and Sherwood bought two of them. He then set out on a trip across Europe to track down enough original 1920s carriages, with their exquisite ArtDeco marquetry and Lalique glass, to make a full train. In 1982, four-anda- half years later, the lovingly restored Venice Simplon-Orient Express set off from Victoria Station for Venice, almost exactly 100 years after it had first carried passengers on their exotic and mysterious journeys across the continent. The re-launch of the Orient-Express attracted so much attention that Sherwood used the name for the luxury hotel company he went on the create. Orient-Express Hotels today owns some of the great hotels of the world, all personally bought by Sherwood over a period of last 30 years. It also owns two other de luxe trains the Eastern & Oriental carries passengers from Singapore to Bangkok, and the Hiram Bingham runs down through the Sacred Valley of the Incas to the mysterious abandoned city of Machu Picchu in Peru. The purchase and restoration of each train and grand hotel has its own extraordinary story behind it, which is wittily and compellingly told.

About this title

Product Description:

When the fabled Orient-Express train, which had carried the rich and the famous across Europe in superb style for nearly a century, was taken out of service in 1977, James B. Sherwood bought two of its 1920s luxury sleeping cars at auction. He then spent $31 million meticulously restoring the 'world's most celebrated train', which was relaunched in 1982 running along the original route of the Simplon-Orient-Express from London and Paris to Venice. Sherwood, known as 'the father of container leasing', made his first fortune from the Sea Containers company that he started in 1965. The purchase of the Hotel Cipriani in 1976 and the Orient-Express carriages a year later marked his entry into an entirely new business which became Orient-Express Hotels with fifty exceptional properties in twenty-four countries. Product Information: ISBN: 9781849541879 Author: James B. Sherwood Publisher: The Robson Press Format: Hardback Pages: 388 Dimensions: 24 x 17 x 4cm

Review:

a fascinating insight into the life of a man who has given us a splendid train to enjoy --Steam World

About this edition

• Publisher: Robson Press
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1849541876
• ISBN 13: 9781849541879
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 400