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Orient Express: A Personal Journey
When the fabled Orient-Express train, which had carried the rich and the famous (as well as some highly suspicious characters) 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. They include the Copacabana Palace in Rio de Janeiro, the Grand Hotel Europe in St. Petersburg, the Hotel Ritz in Madrid, Charleston Place in South Carolina, '21' Club in Manhattan and the Mount Nelson in Cape Town. Sherwood opened up the Far Eastern market with the launch of the cruise ship Road to Mandalay on the Irrawaddy River in Burma, and the Eastern & Oriental Express tourist train which operates between Singapore and Bangkok. He also led the way into Peru where Orient-Express Hotels now operates five of the country's leading hotels as well as the railways serving the 'lost city' of Machu Picchu, Lake Titicaca and down to the sea. Sherwood's personal journey has been a remarkable and incident-packed one, and is told here with a dry and self-deprecating wit and an astonishing eye for detail. It took him through Yale to the Far East, where as a young lieutenant in the U.S. Navy he supported American efforts to hold back the tide of Communism which was spreading through Southeast Asia. He joined United States Lines in 1959 and was based in France where he developed one of the first container shipping operations using the passenger liners ss. United States and ss. America. He ends this book with his own personal list of what makes a great hotel. No one in the world knows more about it.
589 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 1, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
March 23, 2021
If you’ve ever been fortunate enough to stay at or visit a Belmond Group hotel or resort, or experienced one of its train rides, river cruises of safari lodges, you’ll literally be blown away by the luxury. Each hotel, resort or destination is truly a “one-of-a-kind” experience, and each has an incredible story to tell.
Yet ask someone who works at the Belmond today, or check out the literature on the history of its properties, there is almost no reference to the story of how these great destinations came together. Who originally conceived of them? How many owners have they had? How were they connected together? Why was there a mix of hotels, trains and river trips? Why does the Belmond not include some countries - India, Japan and China are noticeably absent? Why did the management change the Orient Express name to Belmond – derived from the Latin for beautiful and world. Who was the founder? It is almost as if LMVH Moet Hennessy - the group that purchases this collection in 2019 - was trying to ignore how this happened.
These are just some of the reasons you need to read the book “Orient Express: A Personal Journey”. It’s an amazing story of a man who lived an amazing life. James Sherwood was the person who spent over 30 years buying, renovating and managing all these great luxury properties. He did so with the first fortune he made by being an innovator in container leasing. Sherwood then spent the rest of his life making his second fortune by turning many of these older and declining properties into a glorious business – the was later acquired for USD3.2 billion by LVMH.
I loved this book mainly because it was a story about the golden age of travel. There was romance in travel in the late 19th and 20th centuries, and arguably none greater than luxury train travel aboard the original Orient Express – that ran is most usually associated with the run between Paris and Istanbul. The draw of this train ride was so strong that James named his entire company – which consisted of over 44 hotels when he sold it – after this famous train.
This book is also about James Sherwood’s passion for beauty and grandeur. He purchased some of the most beautiful hotels in the world and brought many of them back from serious decline. First he purchased the Hotel Cipriani in Venice in 1976. Then he bought two rail cars from the famed Orient Express and painstakingly put it back into service.
He also purchased a number of other hotels in Italy including the Villa St. Michele outside Florence and the Hotel Slendido in Portofino and the Caruso in Ravello above Amalfi. Sherwood bought the Mount Nelson Hotel in Cape Town, the Hotel Copacabana in Rio di Janeiro and the Grand Hotel Europe in St. Petersburg. Each one of these properties were built with care and love. And with each purchase James Sherwood gave these hotels, resorts, trains and boats, new life.
In telling his story I could not help but think of Rudyard Kipling’s famous poem “If” and the following lines: “If you can…..walk with Kings-nor lose the common touch. I felt that although James did business with world leaders, he was able to tell his story with passion, humility, good humour and retain the common touch.
The only thing that I didn’t like about the book was the afterward section where the author set out rules how he would run a Five Star hotel. I felt these were not necessary and did not effectively move the story forward. These suggestions also seem to be both geared to a different audience – aspiring hoteliers perhaps – and they seemed like dated suggestions to me.
While this amazing collection of hotels may now be called the Belmond Group, I will always think of the story behind this story – that of James Sherwood and the Orient Express Hotel group. For this amazing founder certainly deserves to be recognized as an integral part of the Belmond Group’s story.
From a rating perspective I couldn’t put the book down and it really deserves a Five Star Review.
Get it if you can find it.....as it is currently out of print. I found my copy in the UK!
You’ll love it.
Yet ask someone who works at the Belmond today, or check out the literature on the history of its properties, there is almost no reference to the story of how these great destinations came together. Who originally conceived of them? How many owners have they had? How were they connected together? Why was there a mix of hotels, trains and river trips? Why does the Belmond not include some countries - India, Japan and China are noticeably absent? Why did the management change the Orient Express name to Belmond – derived from the Latin for beautiful and world. Who was the founder? It is almost as if LMVH Moet Hennessy - the group that purchases this collection in 2019 - was trying to ignore how this happened.
These are just some of the reasons you need to read the book “Orient Express: A Personal Journey”. It’s an amazing story of a man who lived an amazing life. James Sherwood was the person who spent over 30 years buying, renovating and managing all these great luxury properties. He did so with the first fortune he made by being an innovator in container leasing. Sherwood then spent the rest of his life making his second fortune by turning many of these older and declining properties into a glorious business – the was later acquired for USD3.2 billion by LVMH.
I loved this book mainly because it was a story about the golden age of travel. There was romance in travel in the late 19th and 20th centuries, and arguably none greater than luxury train travel aboard the original Orient Express – that ran is most usually associated with the run between Paris and Istanbul. The draw of this train ride was so strong that James named his entire company – which consisted of over 44 hotels when he sold it – after this famous train.
This book is also about James Sherwood’s passion for beauty and grandeur. He purchased some of the most beautiful hotels in the world and brought many of them back from serious decline. First he purchased the Hotel Cipriani in Venice in 1976. Then he bought two rail cars from the famed Orient Express and painstakingly put it back into service.
He also purchased a number of other hotels in Italy including the Villa St. Michele outside Florence and the Hotel Slendido in Portofino and the Caruso in Ravello above Amalfi. Sherwood bought the Mount Nelson Hotel in Cape Town, the Hotel Copacabana in Rio di Janeiro and the Grand Hotel Europe in St. Petersburg. Each one of these properties were built with care and love. And with each purchase James Sherwood gave these hotels, resorts, trains and boats, new life.
In telling his story I could not help but think of Rudyard Kipling’s famous poem “If” and the following lines: “If you can…..walk with Kings-nor lose the common touch. I felt that although James did business with world leaders, he was able to tell his story with passion, humility, good humour and retain the common touch.
The only thing that I didn’t like about the book was the afterward section where the author set out rules how he would run a Five Star hotel. I felt these were not necessary and did not effectively move the story forward. These suggestions also seem to be both geared to a different audience – aspiring hoteliers perhaps – and they seemed like dated suggestions to me.
While this amazing collection of hotels may now be called the Belmond Group, I will always think of the story behind this story – that of James Sherwood and the Orient Express Hotel group. For this amazing founder certainly deserves to be recognized as an integral part of the Belmond Group’s story.
From a rating perspective I couldn’t put the book down and it really deserves a Five Star Review.
Get it if you can find it.....as it is currently out of print. I found my copy in the UK!
You’ll love it.
November 25, 2018
Mixed feelings about this one. Sherwood seems to be an affable guy, and I respect both his accomplishments and the role he played in the shipping container revolution. He also takes joy in exploring the far corners of the world, and shares interesting tidbits about the places he's seen in a long life of travel.
And then there's the fact that he's a super-rich, privileged bastard who has spent most of his life mingling with and making life more comfortable for other super-rich, privileged bastards. He's probably a decent employer and gives to the right charities, but he also has no trouble getting cozy to juntas and repressive governments if it gives him an in on their hotel business. So as a peasant who loves to travel, I'm torn between admiring his life and wanting to march on his castle with pitchforks and torches...
And then there's the fact that he's a super-rich, privileged bastard who has spent most of his life mingling with and making life more comfortable for other super-rich, privileged bastards. He's probably a decent employer and gives to the right charities, but he also has no trouble getting cozy to juntas and repressive governments if it gives him an in on their hotel business. So as a peasant who loves to travel, I'm torn between admiring his life and wanting to march on his castle with pitchforks and torches...
January 15, 2022
Interesting biography by the man who brought the Orient Express back to life after a century or so in the junk yard. Fact is the story of the train was over by Chapter One. The book then details back to his youth, how he build his fortune in shipping and the majority of the book detailing how he acquired a portfolio of unique and luxurious hotel, usually fixer uppers. It's impressive to see the old world of luxury travel through his unique eye and the vision to develop what is called luxury. I love the appendix where he list out what he qualifies as what top 5-star hotels should / not have (there is no such thing as a 6-star, and I agree!)
May 22, 2018
An interesting personal account of a privileged individual’s role in the corporate development of a chain of luxury hotels, and a network of luxury trains and boats.
Aspirational luxury attractions of interest, but as well as being highly regarded, show how corporates extract maximum leverage from their ownership.
Opportunity and networking support good judgement, but inherited privilege runs throughout the book.
Nonetheless a good read, and what a wonderful life it surely was.
Aspirational luxury attractions of interest, but as well as being highly regarded, show how corporates extract maximum leverage from their ownership.
Opportunity and networking support good judgement, but inherited privilege runs throughout the book.
Nonetheless a good read, and what a wonderful life it surely was.
August 22, 2022
This is vanity publishing of the worst kind, because the ghost writer has been unable to restrain Sherwood from including much extraneous and/or irrelevant material, nor from name dropping wildly.
Why a man who has achieved so much would want to lower himself to “write” this almost unreadable book is beyond me. He has done a lot that could be made really interesting - but by a real author in a better book.
Why a man who has achieved so much would want to lower himself to “write” this almost unreadable book is beyond me. He has done a lot that could be made really interesting - but by a real author in a better book.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews