Ivan Fallon

James B. Sherwood

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. Sherwood bought two of the last four remaining carriages, then set out on a trip across Europe to track down enough original 1920s carriages, with their exquisite Art Deco marquetry and Lalique glass, to make a full train. In 1982, 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 journeys across the continent. Orient-Express Hotels today owns some of the great hotels of the world, all 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 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.

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