MY BOOK REVIEW: "DREAM VOYAGES"

"DREAM VOYAGES: CONCORDE, QE2, ORIENT-EXPRESS": GARY BUCHANAN

This is a book called "Dream Voyages: The fastest, the ultimate, the legendary Concorde, Queen Elizabeth 2, Venice Simplon-Orient-Express" written by GARY BUCHANAN, who if you search on the internet is described as travel and QE2 expert.

On Amazon.co.uk, they describe the book (published in 1989 by Jersey Artists Ltd.) as follows: "A first-hand account reflecting on present day travel aboard three luxury travel experiences. Since 1976, the author has taken 117 Concorde flights, 17 QE2 voyages - mostly lecturing on board, and 47 international Venice Simplon Orient journeys. The book includes chronologies."

The nice thing about this book (and another of his that I also have that will review separately) is that his style is very visual. The book is led by loads of photos, which he then adds light but clearly very knowledgeable and well researched. He is, in my view, very good at drawing you in with a good visual impression of the 3 travel "icons" (The QE2, Concorde and the Orient Express), and just enough text to ensure you get a good enough understanding. His passion and excitement comes through as he adds in touches like copies of menus and photos of the food too! You get the feeling that he is just as excited about his subject as those approaching them for the 1st time.

This book also covers the 3 icons that I want to make sure I do. As of writing this I have done Concorde, in less than 3 weeks will have done QE2 and so that leaves the Orient Express (which interestingly we did not book to go on our first taster cruise that got us hooked and led to us getting sold on the idea!)