Book review: Bretagne – 30 Years Of Splendour

Let's start with a little bit of background for this one: a little over three years ago, my friend (of the internet variety) Vitor Francisco got in touch with me as he had an idea for a maritime book (several, in fact!) and he was keen to have my advice on publishers and how to get things started. In the end, however, it turned out he didn't need it: last May, he got in touch with me again, telling me he had found a publisher (G Books International, run by the maritime historian Nico Guns) and that he was about to do a book on Brittany Ferries' Bretagne – amusingly, this was not a project he had listed to me earlier. Later on, Vitor was kind enough to ask me to write a foreword for the book, which I was more than happy to do.

All this naturally makes me not the ideal person to review the book, as I've been involved in it, first in a peripheral manner before it was even a real project, and then later more intimately. But, as I think it's a good book worthy of the publicity, I'm going to do it anyway.

Bretagne – 30 Years Of Splendour isn't your stereotypical ferry book with thorough technical details and an extensive history of the ship down to the smallest incident and route change. Rather, it is the kind of book which I think is sorely lacking in the field of maritime books: one looking at the subject from the passengers' point of view. What is it like to sail on the Bretagne? What do the interiors look like? How is the cuisine? What are the ports served like? Are there any special events related to the ship and its service? This book delivers all these points and more, with plentiful illustrations to go with the text.

There are some things that I would have done differently. There is some repetition in the photos, and I would have frankly removed some of them from the final product, allowing either for the remaining ones to be printed in larger size (though it must be said there are no stamp-sized images here!), or cut down the number of pages, which would have had the advantage of making the book shorter and therefore cheaper to produce. Furthermore, I would maybe have included a look at how the ship's livery has changed over the years; as it is, all the liveries are illustrated, but not in a chronological way. And then there are a few typos, but to be honest they are almost unavoidable (and I shouldn't be the one speak, seeing there is one also in the prologue I wrote).

Overall, I think this is a very exciting book in that it is very different from most existing ferry books (the ones in English, anyway), with a refreshingly different way of looking at things. This is more of a passengers' book than an enthusists' book, and even with the above mild criticism it makes the book very worthwhile and, frankly, I wish there were more books like this out there! (Perhaps I should write some myself? :P)