Living In Hotels by Helen Wallimann

Author and translator Helen Wallimann will present from 'Living in Hotels: Brown's in London, the Savoy in Cheltenham'. Her father ran Brown's during the Second World War, and bought and ran the Savoy in Cheltenham in 1945, and her book is a memoir of her childhood in those hotels including:

1942-45, childhood memories of Brown's Hotel: sirens and a luxury air raid shelter; a princess; pelicans and tramps in Green Park; bonfire smoke and gas masks; V for Victory.

1945-1950s, memories of beetles in the basement, of attics full of Christmas decorations and trunks with exotic stickers, of cellars filled with furniture, giant jars of eggs in lime water, the statue of a naked woman. Six children trying not to be noisy, making themselves useful in hotel and garden, in quarantine with measles and other diseases. Nannies. Welcome visitors from abroad. Ordinary guests and celebrities. Long-stay residents: the Lively Lady with Intellectual Aspirations, the Prince of Chess, the Archdeacon's Widow, the Gentleman who bought Racehorses, the Colonial Colonel and his Artistic Wife, etc. Employees and their work: housekeepers, linen keepers, office staff, chambermaids, porters, waiters and waitresses, dishwashers, gardeners.

Helen Wallimann was born and brought up in the UK. After her MA from Edinburgh University she worked in publishing in Munich, Paris and London. From 1973 until 2001 she was employed as a teacher of French and English at the Kantonsschule Solothurn, Switzerland. She taught English at Chinese universities for two years and for two years taught English didactics to Chinese schoolteachers in Gansu Province, subject of another book.

After the reading you will have time to talk to Helen while enjoying a rich aperitif.

Please register by Tuesday, 5 March 2024 with our secretary This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.