| Main centres: | 1-3 business days |
| Regional areas: | 3-4 business days |
| Remote areas: | 3-5 business days |
Hardcover first published by Michael Joseph 1959. The jacket is whole, but is edge-worn and creased, with several chips and tears to the edges, and an internal tear down the spine. The boards are clean and square, but with a few small bumps in places. The name and address details of a previous owner appear on the first end-paper, and there is some light spotting to page edges, that are otherwise all clean and unmarked. "This novel is about one of the glittering luxury hotels which are a feature of modern civilised life. The story is of Charles Montfior's rise through the hierarchy of the hotel to the top, and what happened to him once he was there. Diplomat, peacemaker, tyrant, meticulous organiser down to the minutest detail - Charles Montfior had to be all of these and more. Richard Llewellyn has re-created every aspect of the hotel and its working, controlling and investing his many characters with life in a way which invites comparison with Arnold Bennett's Imperial Palace and perhaps even with Zola in the masterpieces he wrote about the trades, professions and milieux of Paris."
