September 4th 1973

“BAK TO SCHOOL! Went up Nigs, went over park, Mart P also came. Bought Hotel”

Ha-ha-ha. My entry makes it sound as though, that night, I simply “bought a hotel”!

“Hello, is that the Savoy?”

“Yes, how can we help you?”

“I’d like to buy your hotel please”

“Why certainly sir, just bring your collection of Emerson, Lake & Palmer LP’s, a ticket stub from the Bowie concert and… if you happen to have a gaudily-painted transistor radio.. well that should be more than enough for our ornate West End business”

I know cynics amongst you may think my ‘price’ for a hotel was 4 green houses…. but you’d be wrong! Wrong, I tells ya!

Sadly, the truth is no more exciting than a paperback of Arthur Hailey’s then best-seller “Hotel”. This often-saucy tale about what goes on behind the doors of a New Orleans hotel was a HUGE book at the time and like many other people I got sucked into the inevitable slipstream.

Unlike his other HUGE seller – “Airport” – “Hotel” was never made into a feature film, but I seem to remember a tawdry TV mini-series based on it? James Brolin? (Checks t’internet… yep!)

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