Grand by Nature: Fairmont Hotels’ Hefty Ode to the Past is a Page-turner for the Ages.
by Shannon Melnyk
While the last two years have left us waxing sentimental about the glory days of past adventures, armchair travellers are in luck with a new coffee table book designed to keep the romance of epic travels vibrantly alive. Grand by Nature is Fairmont Hotels’ heavyweight champion of a hotel memoir – coming in at over 300 pages. More than 500 illustrations, photographs, archives and insider tales weave about in a reflection of 135 years of hotel chronicles in some of the most iconic settings around the world.
Rajasthani Indo-Saracenic or Mughal-style domed pavilions, known as chhatris, decorate the roof of Fairmont Jaipur. Credit: Paola Bertoletti
Authored by Claire Wrathall and Claire-Marie Angelini-Thiennot, the hardcover is described as “fascinating tales of moments that defined our culture, celebrated pivotal occasions and even changed the course of history.”
The Plaza appearing in Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest. Credit: Photo12 / 7e Art / MGM
If the Fairmont Hotels had ghosts, what tongue-wagging tales they’d tell. But Grand by Nature on its own does paint an effective portrait of the palatial architecture and interiors and the historical and contemporary guests that made the Fairmont name famous.
“Fairmont castles have a soul”, writes Hollywood icon Susan Sarandon in the book’s forward. “A fairy tale as I like them – sweetened by rooftop hive honey.”
“Fairmont castles have a soul. A fairy tale as I like them – sweetened by rooftop hive honey”
Fairy tales are easy to tell when some of your properties are glorious castles like the Banff Springs Hotel. The pages cross cultures and continents from majestic chateau-like giants in the wilds of the Canadian Rockies to the audacious art-deco of the Savoy graced with its bold Lalique fountain.
Fairmont Beijing. Credit: Fairmont Beijing Archives
The book is divided into three sections: Origins, Architecture, and Soul. Fairmont’s beginnings include tales of love, luck and tragedy; striking gold in the 19th century, the Vanderbilt family, an earthquake and the birth of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Pages of spectacular design span the motifs of Mughal architecture in the Maldives and India to the neoclassical gold salons and luminous chandeliers of Europe. The hotels were not only a stage for civil rights, World Summits and World War ll, but also for literature, music, fashion, art, royalty and cinema – from posh Black and White Balls - to soirées of the avant-garde and glitterati tête-à-têtes from the likes of Truman Capote, Marilyn Monroe, Ella Fitzgerald, Barack Obama and Madonna.
It’s a visual feast of star-studded luxury across the most striking of natural landscapes. Grand by Nature is grand, indeed.
Page 43: The Plaza (New York), oil on canvas by William R. Derrick, ca. 1907–11. Credit: Bettmann / Getty Images
You can purchase the book, Grand by Nature, here