Hotel America

i ENJOYED Tom Leonard’s article about the famous Barbizon hotel for women, in New York (Mail).

i stayed at this magnificent Gothic Revival edifice in 1977. Feminism had arrived and the hotel’s chic style was fading. The reception was littered with rangy models, hippies and a Miss Marple lookalike.

This elderly English lady was a permanent resident of the hotel and we kept in touch until her death.

i am still friends with a girl i met in the notorious coffee shop where men tried to pick up the hotel’s residents. it has always reminded me of the cover of the supertramp album Breakfast in America. DEBORAH HOLDSWORTH,

Barnet, Herts.