give Them a book
Fantastic Christmas present ideas.
Hotels Of The Stars: A-list Haunts And Hideaways
Tessa Williams, Roads Publishing, £40
RAISING a glass of ‘Bolly’, Ab Fab’s Patsy Stone offers up “the most beautiful words in the English language: Grand-Hotel du Cap-Ferrat”.
It may be little more than a throwaway joke in the 2016 movie which sees Eddy and Patsy (aka Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley) hide out in the south of France but there’s a good deal of truth in it, according to author and former model Tessa Williams.
Aberdeenshire-based Tessa – mum to Ocean, 13 – spent a year visiting and researching some of the world’s most exclusive A-list hotels for her latest book. The 250-page-plus glossy, coffee table tome is as sumptuous as the establishments it portrays. With great pictures, it pulsates with the decadence, scandal and thrilling tales of the uber-rich and famous – from Elizabeth Taylor and Marilyn Monroe, to John Belushi, Michael Jackson and Britney Spears.
The writer, who was living in France when she began researching her debut offering Cult Perfumes, hit on the idea for her second book after a chance meeting with its future publisher at a perfume fair in Milan.
Tessa, who also has her own high-end home fragrance range Elements, tells iN10: “My love of luxurious hotels was first ignited when I lived in France.
“I was intrigued by their history, the stories attached to them and the people whose lives were entwined with these exclusive enclaves.”
She remembers her first encounter several years ago with her beloved “Hotel du Cap” and smiles: “I’ll never forget driving up the impossibly immaculate driveway in my better-days-seen black Golf, my young daughter at my side.
“Nervously, I parked the car and walked through the lobby and the gardens before reaching the nirvana’s edge of the infinity pool. I sat there wondering if I had enough money to pay for the cola and the glass of rosé I had ordered.
“As I began to relax, I looked out to sea and realised I was enjoying just the same view as all of those glittering stars who had been there before me.”
Her new book capitalises on that experience, taking readers from their armchairs into a world they might otherwise not share.
And the author, who has the support of celebrated actor Richard E Grant (of Sky Atlantic’s Hotel Secrets fame) and internationally renowned hotelier and restaurateur Albert Roux, admits that this time when she visited with her daughter she didn’t have to worry about the price of a Coke.
The book features 35 of the world’s top hotels including Chateau Marmont, a Hollywood landmark where John Belushi died and from which Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan were allegedly banned, as well as the Beverley Hills Hotel in Los Angeles where Marlene Dietrich famously flouted the ‘no slacks’ rule.
Scots hotels are included too: The Balmoral in Edinburgh where JK Rowling penned the last of the Harry Potter books and Inverlochy Castle in Fort William, a favoured haunt of Barbara Streisand, Sir Elton John and Gerard Butler.
Tessa says: “Le Sirenuse in Positano, Italy remains one of my favourites. It’s a dream-like place perched on the cliff overlooking the Amalfi coast.
“Waking up there feels like being transported to paradise. I also liked the Gstaad Palace, a mountaintop hotel in Switzerland where we were met by a vintage Rolls Royce. Michael Jackson loved the hotel so much he wanted to buy it.”
She giggles: “Ocean adored coming along on the visits and was so excited by the adventure of it all. She was treated like a princess. The only worry is that she now doesn’t take quite so easily to staying in a Travelodge or Premier Inn.”