Three leading ship historians join forces to write the definitive history of Cunard’s Queen Elizabeth 2, the world’s most famous ocean liner. Beginning with an overview of the social and cultural context from which the liner emerged, the design process is followed from the earliest proposals for Q3 to the detailed design of Q4. The story continues with the John Brown shipyard successfully tendering for the construction and recounts the many challenges which beset the famous shipbuilder in the periods before, during and after QE2 was being built.

Thereafter, the ship’s sea trials, troubled inauguration and successful maiden voyage are described, partly through first hand accounts. The long career and the many subsequent changes carried out to the ship are then illustrated against the cultural and economic backgrounds of rapidly changing societies in Britain and the USA. QE2 has stood the test of time remarkably well – but, since the 1980s, the liner has gradually been rebuilt from a futuristic Modernist icon into a ‘retro’ ship, based upon nostalgia for a lost ‘golden age’ of inter-war liner travel and the reasons for these changes are also explained. Bringing the story right up-to-date, the book concludes with an account of the final voyage to Dubai.

Published in early December 2008. 216 pages. A4 + (225x280). Over 200 colour and black& white views many of which have never been published. The book will include a sheet of QE2 stamps bound into the book by the Isle of Man Post, a specially-commissioned print within the book of the QE2 leaving New York for the last time by Robert Lloyd. QE2 Britain Greatest Liner is now available as an advanced order from us free of postage and packing until 31st October 2008 to British and European addresses only at £30.

In addition, we are working with the Isle of Man Post Office on a Special Commemorative Boxed Set on the QE2. Full details of the boxed set are set out below and can be purchased by making an outright payment or can be paid for in six standing order payments direct to our company. If you wish to avail yourself of this method of payment you will need to telephone our office on 01624 898446

QE2 - Britain's Greatest Liner
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QE2 - Britain's Greatest Liner Box Set
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