High Tea on the Cunard Queens

This amusing insight into Cunard's legendary liners begins more than fifty years ago when the author joined the original Queen Mary as an entertainments officer, when a part of the job was 'bumbling' the passengers while keeping a wary eye out for professional gamblers criss-crossing the Atlantic, and there was bingo and dance bands, novelty dancing and fancy-dress parades, and a primitive disco with a monster juke box. Paul Curtis recounts the stories of the ships, the antics of passengers and crews, and much more besides. Just turning these pages releases a sniff of the sea and a whiff of champagne. This frank and funny account of mixes Cunard history with personal anecdote and vividly reveals how passenger and crew life have changed over the years across the Cunard liners.

PAUL CURTIS went to sea at 18 and worked as a ship photographer aboard ten different passenger ships, before being appointed cabin class entertainment officer aboard the Queen Mary. When the Queens were sold off he moved to New York, then Australia, and worked as a photographer, journalist, magazine publisher and finally Chief Operating Officer for the Imaging and Digital Entertainment Association (IDEA). He has three awards from the Australian Institute of Professional Photography: Hon Life Member, Hon Fellowship and the McCarthy Award for an exceptional long contribution to professional photography. He lives in Queensland.