2. Hotel Babylon (2004) - Imogen Edwards-Jones & Anonymous

His voice peters off into nothing. I don't bother to reply because we are both staring at the main door where Michelle's getting out of a cab, ten minutes late for her exit interview. She is wearing a pair of knee-length boots, flesh-coloured tights and a very short mini skirt. It's a combination not dissimilar to the recently departed Jaguar. She looks a lot more attractive out of the dark suit and light shirt she usually wears on reception. Steve the doorman's mouth hangs open as she swans through the revolving doors, her head held high. Even Dave stops polishing his brass.

The inspiration for the popular British television series of the same name, Hotel Babylon provides a glimpse into the largely unglamorous life of the hospitality industry. Based off the real life experiences of an anonymous hotel worker, the novel presents a series of events compressed into a 24 hour shift. This book provided me with some relatively "light" reading, although I wouldn't quite place it in the same category as chick lit because it is after all still an expose about the reality of working in a hotel. I found the latter quite compelling actually as knowing that these events and even people were factual made me applaud the staff for putting up with the crazy, let alone handling it with politeness and aplomb. Imogen Edwards-Jones is a good writer and the structure of the novel is interesting and easy to read. I'm not rushing off to read the other exposes in this Hotel Babylon series, but I'm not ruling them out of future reading lists either. 

2.5 Stars