Writing a book is a very complex and uncertain business full of different sorts of details that we don't know much about but we did read them once in a magazine in a hotel on the outskirts of St Petersburg that had plush red carpets and luxury meals available twenty-four hours a day. All you had to do was to call room service using the golden bell in the corner and the waiter would come to your attention immediately.
He would always be wearing a well pressed suit and fine shoes. His trousers would be clean and smart and he would be wearing a fine hat. And he would ask you what service you want.
In this hotel, that was so good for writing books of every kind, you had every service at your disposal for twenty four hours a day but sometimes for shorter periods of time and nobody every really understood the schedule. The hotel had a finely apportioned exterior where you could lean from the windows without risk of falling and you could listen to the people in the next room having their intimate conversations. If you didn't put your head out of the window then you couldn't listen to what they said.
I always liked this hotel because you found some customers in there not just using modern languages like Greek and Latin but also using languages with ancient traditions like French and German.
I like staying in St Petersburg. What about you?
Comments