- Paperback: 272 pages
- Publisher: Gollancz; New edition edition (4 Nov 1999)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0752833782
- ISBN-13: 978-0752833781
- Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 12.4 x 2.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 781,343 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
| ||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details |
More About the Author
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Clearly, it does not pay to get on the wrong side of Kit Chapman, the proprietor of The Castle at Taunton. His diary, full of irascible correspondence, acid character sketches and outraged High Tory expostulations, is a formidable work in itself--a candid glimpse into the bizarre and not altogether glamorous world of the fashionable hotelier. Whether he is making up with Gary Rhodes on national television in front of a bored-to-tears Michael Aspel, or steering a Young Conservative slapper away from a bemused Sir Bernard Ingham, Kit Chapman exhibits a great appetite for etiquette, pleasure, good conversation and--well, why not?--the applause of his peers. This is a man who, when he receives a friend's book, turns straight to the index. ("I scored three entries, on a par with the Queen, Rik Mayall, Esther Rantzen and John Redwood; one entry more than Martin Amis, Jeffrey Archer and Robin Day.")
Drawn to The Castle by a developed palette and a certain income, Chapman's guests are as varied and eccentric a party as Dante ever interviewed in hell: a surreal cross-section of the great, the good, and the ghastly. Chapman treats them all like royalty, describes hotel inspectors in terms that are practically unrepeatable, and generally indulges in the contradictions of his gargantuan personality. At once irascible businessman and cordial host, Chapman is a gift to satirists but as he says, "I'd rather be remembered than forgotten." No danger of that, then. --Simon Ings --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Description
Based on the original "Innkeeper's Diary", published in 1931, this book covers a year in the life of Kit Chapman's "The Castle Inn" in Taunton. Full of humorous stories about clients and staff, the book also contains details on running a fine establishment and the role of the hotelier.
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This candid and fascinating account of a year in the life of hotelier Kit Chapman was riveting reading, a mixture of a somewhat exotic family history, food history and day-to-day affairs of running a hotel with an award-winning restaurant. For many of us who are too mean (or too sensible!) to spend such vast amounts of money on eating out, this is truly another world: but a world that was great fun to read about, and a book that is written with accomplished pace. I can't wait to read the next instalment, so hope there is one simmering away now.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I have to admit to a 'relationship' with the Chapman family. My wife and I bought Gidleigh Park in 1977 and converted it to an hotel, and Kit's parents Etty and Peter came to stay in our first year. Then we got to know Kit and Louise, and in the last twenty years they have become good friends.
In a sense the Castle Hotel is a competitor of ours, but it is a friendly competition, and we admire what first Kit's parents, then Kit and Louise have achieved in developing an admirable hotel and restaurant in a dreary town - I know they won't object to such a characterisation of Taunton, indeed some of the most amusing passages in the book are Kit's accounts of his skirmishes with Mr. Waffles on the local council.
In a town like Taunton, Kit has had to be a talent scout for top quality staff and also an entertainment impresario as well as hotelier, and his accounts of their gastronomic dinners and music weekends tempt me too. In these two pages Chapman reveals what drives the managers of GOOD hotels. We would be ashamed to charge for mediocre food and service, and we value the compliments of our clients more than we do the profits that we can make in the business.
This book is essential reading for everyone in the trade, and also for hotel wannabees, some of whom might be discouraged by the variety of demands made on a hotel manager on a daily basis. I can well remember thinking how romantic it would be to run an hotel before we started Gidleigh Park - it IS good fun but it is also bloody hard work, and it requires a great variety of skills all of which Kit Chapman has in spades.
In addition to all of his skills as an hotelier, he is a very good writer and the book was finished long before I was ready for the end. Could we please have another year in your life, Kit?
Paul Henderson Paul Henderson Proprietor, Gidleigh Park Hotel and Restaurant
Format:Hardcover
I really enjoyed this book. It is very entertaining and wittly. The curmudgeonly innkeeper puts one in mind of Basil Fawlty, constantly deplored by the lack of class shown by his guests.
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
