Customer Reviews

Mustique

5 star:		(4)
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A few years ago I was able to visit Mustique on assignment and lived there for two weeks. I have lost count of how many Caribbean countries and islands I have visited over the years, but Mustique is simply different. Yes, we all know that many of the rich and famous have holiday homes there but that is largely all we know about this small island with its air of mystery.

What we don't tend to appreciate is that those rich and famous people are not able to visit Mustique as often as they might otherwise wish and that their homes are let and managed for them during those long absences. A percentage of the income from these lettings is then channelled back into the island. Consequently, Mustique is not only well kept, has pretty decent roads but the local inhabitants have schools and medical facilities not seen elsewhere.

In this book, Roger Vaughan sets out to explain the island by simply telling the reader all about it. It is a large, thick "coffee table" book full of the most beautiful photographs one might ever wish to see about a single place. As a professional photographer, may I say, the images are stunning. Not only are they of the highest quality, the underlying theme for all seven contributing photographers was surely "colour." Their approach has succeeded in portraying a very colourful image about a very bright place.

This is a great book about a fascinating island. When one considers that one of those photographer was the late, and very much missed, Patrick Lichfield, you start to get some sort of idea about what went into producing such a worthwhile product as this book.

And, by the way, Mustique does have its own shipwreck. The Antilles was a cruise liner - well it would have to be wouldn't it, this is Mustique, after all!

NM

I think this book captures the true essence of the island of Mustique. It shown all the wonderful beaches and the beautiful water. I believe that the photos of the people that live on the island and the photos of their town make Mustique a place I would want to visit for years to come.

This book is a wonder. And I mean just that. It's about people who have second or third or fourth homes on an island that has been purposefully developed to house them in privacy and various definitions of splendour. Not exactly appealing to all, right? But this book IS appealing, it's the embodiment of the capitalist dream: get the money and THEN what do you do with it? Build or buy a house on Mustique. BEST is the text, a well-written account of how this all happened. And the PHOTOGRAPHS are lovely, chosen to evoke the mood. Yes, the book is expensive (no where nearly as the real estate!), but it's worth every penny. May not be my dream, but it a serious chronicle of some important other dreams in the late 20th/early 21st century.

This is an excellently written book about one of the world's most expensive "developments," a scrub island turned into a multi-millionaires' paradise. Mr. Vaughan has done a masterful job of capturing the whimsy and the vision (albeit sometimes slightly cock-eyed) of the man who dreamed this all up, as well as bits of the lives of those who are now availing themselves of the private, secure, and demonstrably exquisitely beautiful end result. The photographs are lovely, this is an altogether great book to have lying around on any cofee table; it's sure to spark conversation ("is that really Mick Jagger?" et cetera).