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Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul and this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome UK’s Harry Cotterill, cruise blogger and artist from Cruise Cotterill. The Cruise Cotterill brand was launched in 2015 and since then Harry's talent for producing one-of-a-kind drawings of the world's cruise ships and other craft has become increasingly talked about around the world. Cruise Cotterill is nominated for cruise awards year after year; he has been shortlisted for the UK Wave Award and is again nominated in 2024.
To date, Harry's artwork has been presented onboard no less than 100 different ships! He has been commissioned to produce his highly detailed one-of-kind drawings by clients all over the world, as well as cruise lines including Azamara Cruises and Ambassador Cruise Line. His artwork has become so popular he currently has clients securing commissions many months in advance. As a teen, so impressed were his fans and followers that they got together and paid for young Harry's first cruise!
Harry first started drawing ships while he was still in school, where he studied art. His artistic skills only improved over time as he continued to draw. As a teenager, Harry had the ambition to become a naval architect and design his own ships. In May 2009, Harry had his first large-scale drawing presented on board Holland America Line's Eurodam at Harwich International Port. This was to be the first of many more presentations to come. After excelling at college, Harry decided to pursue his passion and aim of setting up his own business, Cruise Cotterill.
The Odysseys of Alaythia
After finding a 100 year old diary, Virginia becomes aware of a fantasy world near her own
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Paul C. Thornton started writing at 58 years old incited by the task of delivering a father-of-the-bride speech at his daughter’s wedding. Told to talk about memories of Kina growing up; among Disney trips, high school sports, proms, and first boyfriends, Paul divulged the most powerful memory of all, when Kina was six and his life changed forever. At the end of the talk—as they say—"there wasn’t a dry eye in the house.” It was both liberating and cathartic to release secrets that had tortured Paul for 30 years. Needing to hold on to that feeling of release and empowerment, when he returned to his hotel Paul started his memoir, provocatively titled White Man’s Disease.
Paul’s just completed book, The Joy of Cruising Again, is his fourth; the third in The Joy of Cruising trilogy, and follow-up to the fun, upbeat, award-winning The Joy of Cruising, and Cruising Interrupted. The Joy of Cruising Again is the finale of the series but Paul won’t give up his passion. Besides continuing to cruise as much as possible, Paul hosts The Joy of Cruising Podcast, a weekly conversation with one of the dozens of passionate cruisers featured in the books and other global cruise personalities.
The cruise-themed books are a stark departure from Paul’s debut: White Man’s Disease, a memoir described as “gripping and inspiring” in the press release announcing it as the winner of the North Street Book Prize for Memoir and Creative Nonfiction about Paul’s harrowing brush with death, the journey of recovery from trauma, resilience and ultimately transformation. White Man’s Disease is at once poignant, sad, tragic, funny, and compelling. (And, if I could get a dollar for everyone who asks what White Man’s Disease means, I would be a wealthy man!) Despite their very different subjects, at the heart of White Man’s Disease and The Joy of Cruising Trilogy is passion and how passionate people do wondrous things. Paul just started a sequel to White Man’s Disease; a fun, and hopefully inspirational tale called Gracefully. In addition, he is planning a podcast series that deconstructs White Man’s Disease.
Paul is originally from Brooklyn and Long Island, New York. After serving in the US Army and simultaneously earning a bachelor's degree in business, he attained his MBA and then spent concurrently, 17 years in corporate management, and 23 years in small business ownership. After leaving corporate, he started a career in higher ed. He earned a doctorate, attained tenure as a business professor, and subsequently moved into administration in Dean or Executive Director positions before retiring in 2021.
Paul lives in Mooresville, North Carolina with his wife Cheryl and considers cruising with their children and grandchildren life’s ultimate escape. Paul longs to cruise as much as the people he writes about in The Joy of Cruising Trilogy.
