What’s the right way to voyage?

My husband has ordered a copy of Craig Brown’s new book, out next week, a bit late for my birthday. I know he’ll grab it while I’m doing the washing up and later read out bits, which would be nice if he were any good at it.

I wonder if the book explains the title: A Voyage Around the Queen. I see the idea, glimpses of the late Queen from many points of view, a speciality in which the author excels. The title reminded me of John Mortimer’s play A Voyage Round My Father, on which Rupert Everett toured last autumn. An East Midlands theatre site announced it as A Voyage Around My Father, but it is Round.

Mortimer’s title echoed Xavier de Maistre’s book Voyage autour de ma chambre, published in 1794 as by ‘M. Le Chev X’. The author explains that after a duel he wrote it while on parole not to leave his room for 42 days.