Join us for an evening with the BBC’s Chief International Correspondent Lyse Doucet as she talks about her new book The Finest Hotel in Kabul: A People’s History of Afghanistan with fellow journalist Phillipa Cherryson.
“An incredible book – vivid and beautifully written, it captures the soul of Afghanistan through an age of hopes and heartbreak, as well as one of constant change. A tender, wise and quietly devastating book.” Peter Frankopan
Lyse is the BBC’s Chief International Correspondent and has led BBC coverage of events ranging from the Arab Spring to the Sudanese Civil War. She first arrived at the Kabul Inter-Continental Hotel on Christmas Day 1988, the day after her 30th birthday. A junior BBC reporter, she was there to cover the withdrawal of Soviet troops following their decade-long occupation of Afghanistan.
She still visits whenever she is in Afghanistan. She counts many of its staff and fellow guests her close friends and here, for the first time, she tells their stories.
When the Inter-Continental Kabul opened in 1969, Afghanistan’s first luxury hotel symbolised a dream of a modernising country connected to the world.
More than fifty years on, the Inter-Continental is still standing. It has endured Soviet occupation, multiple coups, a grievous civil war, a US invasion and the rise, fall and rise of the Taliban. History lives within its scarred windows and walls.
Lyse Doucet uses its story to craft a richly immersive history of modern Afghanistan. The result is a remarkably vivid history of how Afghans have survived a half century of destruction and disruption. It is the story of a hotel but also the story of a people.
“A story of a country and a people, told with knowledge, insight and tenderness. I’ve been waiting for a Lyse Doucet book for a long time and what she has produced here is testament to her humanity as well as her journalistic eye.” Mishal Hussain
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