Zenon Vantini

Rezensionen / Stimmen

Zenon Vantini grasped the opportunities presented by political and economic developments in nineteenth-century Europe in a truly exemplary fashion. On his native Elba, he encountered the exiled Napoleon, whom he joined for the Hundred Days. Then, having pursued domestic service in Britain, he conceived the idea of catering for railway travellers, via a chain of hotels that encompassed the continent. Vantini's fascinating transnational career is memorably explored by Pamela Sambrook in this engrossing study.
Malcolm Crook, emeritus professor of French History, Keele University

This was a most enjoyable read, highly informative and the book has page turning qualities making it difficult to put down. The excitement of the chase is not immediately apparent, but develops well before Napoleon enters stage left.
Paul Anderton, former Adult Education Tutor, Keele University

Zenon Vantini leased and managed the first railway-owned hotel (at Euston) and the first railway refreshment rooms (at Wolverton). He organised the first continental rail tours ten years before Thomas Cook. Probably no railway pioneer had a more unusual and exotic back-story, yet he is virtually unknown, even to specialist historians. This book fills a significant gap in transport history.
Peter Brown, Transport historian, formerly reviews editor of the Journal of the Railway & Canal Historical Society

The author has written a lively, fully referenced book about a subject who was difficult to research because of the paucity and widely-scattered nature of the sources.
Peter Brown, in Journal of the Railway & Canal Historical Society