The captivating story of the famed Savoy Hotel’s founders, told through three generations—and one hundred years—of glamour and high society.
For the gondoliers-themed birthday dinner, the hotel obligingly flooded the courtyard to conjure the Grand Canal of Venice. Dinner was served on a silk-lined floating gondola, real swans were swimming in the water, and, as a final flourish, a baby elephant borrowed from the London Zoo pulled a five-foot high birthday cake.
In three generations, the D’Oyly Carte family and London’s Savoy Hotel pioneered the idea of the luxury hotel and the modern theater, propelled Gilbert and Sullivan to lasting stardom, made Oscar Wilde a transatlantic celebrity, inspired a P. G. Wodehouse series, and popularized early jazz, electric lights, and Art Deco.
Following the history of the iconic Savoy Hotel through three generations of the D’Oyly Carte family, The Secret Life of the Savoy brings to life the extraordinary cultural legacy of the most famous hotel in the world.
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“From Belle Epoque scandals to Hollywood gossip, and from kitchen politics to corporate swashbuckling, Williams’ writing is deliciously alive with the type of behind-the-scenes drama that will transport you back in time.”
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Francesca Cartier Brickell, author of The Cartiers