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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Thomas Cook
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(1808–92) Inventor of the package tour, which evolved from his zeal for the temperance movement. Wanting to get teetotallers from Leicester to a rally in Loughborough, he hired and advertised a special train on the Midland railway; 570 people responded and made the return journey for a shilling on 5 July 1841. Within a few years Cook was organizing attractive holiday tours; 350 tourists, for example, paid a guinea to travel by train and steamer to Glasgow, where they had vouchers for their hotels and were greeted with brass bands and the firing of cannons. The natural next step was tours abroad. Under his son (John Mason Cook, 1834–99) and grandsons, the firm developed into the international travel agency of today.
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