Category Archives: Books – Bus Travel

Books to Read

Top Deck Daze (Updated)

By Bill James

In Top Deck Daze, Bill James tells the hilarious, true story of how Graham ‘Screw’ Turner establishes a bus touring company using old converted double-decker buses. From humble beginnings in 1973 London, Screw, together with a gang of colonial larrikins, builds up a 100-strong fleet of ‘deckers’. Follow the antics of Screw, Spy, Bill Speaking, Wombat, Filthy, Grilly, Budgie, the mysterious Graham James Lloyd and other incorrigible crew members as they lead their unsuspecting punters on riotous escapades to far flung, exotic corners of the world. The chaos that was Top Deck Travel lays the foundation for Flight Centre. Screw, through his dogged determination builds the company into a hugely successful, multi-million dollar travel empire.

Only Two Seats Left: The Incredible Contiki Story

By John Anderson

This is one of Australasia’s great untold business success stories. It is the incredible story of how a simple idea with a starting capital of just 25 pounds became a worldwide travel company with an iconic brand name. Over two million young people have now travelled Contiki! For the vast majority, the experience changed their lives for ever.

Author and Contiki founder John Anderson blends an autobiography, epic travel tale and business success story which reads like a novel. Discover the raw truths behind John’s exhilarating 28 year journey of dizzying successes and disappointing failures, coupled with his most valuable secrets of successful entrepreneurship.
Feel your sense of adventure surface and immerse yourself in the same spirit of fun and passion that fuelled John’s action packed life.
A book for anyone who’s ever dreamt of taking a risk with that first bold step to venture into the unknown …

Magic Bus

Magic Bus

by Rory Mclean

In the 1960s, hundreds of thousands of young Westerners, inspired by Kerouac and the Beatles, blazed the ‘hippie trail’ overland from Istanbul to Kathmandu in search of enlightenment and a bit of cheap dope. Since the Summer of Love, the countries that offered so much to these dreamers have confronted the full force of modernity and transformed from worlds of Western fantasy to political minefields. Through a landscape of breathtaking beauty Rory MacLean retraces the path of the once well-worn ‘hippie trail’ from Turkey to Iran, Afghanistan to Pakistan, India to Nepal, meeting trail veterans and locals on his way, and relives wide-eyed adventures as he witnesses a world of extraordinary and terrifying transformation.

Top Deck Daze

By Bill James

In Top Deck Daze, Bill James tells the hilarious, true story of how Graham ‘Screw’ Turner establishes a bus touring company using old converted double-decker buses. From humble beginnings in 1973 London, Screw, together with a gang of colonial larrikins, builds up a 100-strong fleet of ‘deckers’. Follow the antics of Screw, Spy, Bill Speaking, Wombat, Filthy, Grilly, Budgie, the mysterious Graham James Lloyd and other incorrigible crew members as they lead their unsuspecting punters on riotous escapades to far flung, exotic corners of the world. The chaos that was Top Deck Travel lays the foundation for Flight Centre. Screw, through his dogged determination builds the company into a hugely successful, multi-million dollar travel empire.