High Tea on the Cunard Queens: A Light-hearted Look at Life at Sea

By Paul Curtis

This amusing insight into Cunard’s legendary liners begins more than fifty years ago when Paul Curtis joined the original Queen Mary as entertainments officer. Over a Cunard high tea in the Queens Room, Paul recounts the stories of these iconic ships. Then, over a drink in the Red Lion, he shares the tales of the antics of both passengers and crews. The facts are delivered in vivid detail – some of them things you should know and an occasional peep at things you shouldn’t. Simply turning these pages releases a sniff of the sea and a whiff of champagne. Paul has worked, travelled upon or photographed every Cunard Queen ever built. He has an offbeat sense of humour and a keen appetite for the ridiculous. A life at sea can do that to you.

• Language: English
• Publisher: The History Press
• Release date: Aug 12, 2019
• ISBN: 9780750992749

Paul Curtis

Paul Curtis fell in love with the Isle of Wight on his first visit as an adult in 2008. Surprised and inspired by the sheer variety of landscapes in a relatively small area, he kept returning over the next three years and ended up walking nearly every footpath on the island before being commissioned by Cicerone to write 'Walking on the Isle of Wight'. He has lived on the island since 2011 but regularly finds time to walk and cycle on the mainland and internationally. Adventures have included cycling from Amsterdam to Albania, Caen to Malaga, Calais to Istanbul, Boston to San Diego, and walking across Switzerland on the Alpine Pass Route using the excellent Cicerone guidebook by Kev Reynolds. Paul is a solo, romantic explorer in the Wainwright tradition and believes that guidebooks should first and foremost be about finding the most beautiful routes and giving precise, accurate descriptions.