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“Families are strange and wonderful organisms. Bound by blood, they embody relationships which can be at once loving and nurturing, fragile and combustible. Every family is different, each one unique – but all confront difficulties and dramas common to the human condition.”In this epic saga written from the sublime peace of his Aegean archipelago, Kit Chapman unravels the turbulent story of his family. It is a tale of fortunes won and lost, of bitter rivalries, death and suicide, moral angst, and the consuming love affair of his parents, Etty and Peter.Born into a long line of glamorous European hoteliers, Kit stumbles upon the truth, and potential scandal, surrounding the unexpected death of his famous grandfather, Henry Prüger – a black secret the family has covered up for nearly eighty years. The shock of Prüger’s death in 1929 affected his three teenage sons for the rest of their lives. And for Peter, the youngest, the trauma was assuaged only by his passionate romance and marriage to Etty in Greece after the war.In the 1950s, the young family – Peter, Etty, Kit and Gerald, settled into life at Taunton’s Castle Hotel. But by the Seventies, the pressures of a controlling and egocentric mother drove her two grown-up children to break free. For ten dark years, Gerald struggled with his homosexuality before coming out – an announcement which devastated his father. And when Kit and his wife, Louise, joined the business, their bitter conflict with Etty and the tragedy of Gerald’s death by AIDS eventually split the family and brought the Castle to the brink of bankruptcy.My Archipelago is a powerful and extraordinary story. For Kit Chapman it is also a journey of reconciliation – an attempt to understand, forgive and heal the scars left by his battles with his parents.My Archipelago "…..a thrilling, tense and heart-wrenching family drama with all the characteristicsof a great nineteenth century novel. You simply can’t put it down. The book isa stunner."Alexander Waugh"The Innkeeper of Taunton has done it again. Kit Chapman has woven in words a richly sourced tapestry of his family’s history. It is no ordinary family, and its dark side is as compelling as its sunlit uplands."Martin Bell"This is a brilliant family saga which reads like an exciting novel : intrigue, love and passions intermingle throughout the story of the Chapman family and the Castle Hotel. A truly great read."Rosie Boycott"All families have skeletons. The Chapmans require more than a mere cupboard to contain theirs…. Suicides, shame, inter-generational warfare, jealousy, betrayal…. Kit Chapman is one of England’s greatest hoteliers and the most polished of men. Here he strips himself of all sophistication and shows himself to be a truly potent and elemental writer whose every measured page makes one wince, whose every revelation is harrowing."Jonathan MeadesKit Chapman is the Proprietor of The Castle at Taunton. He is a well-known personality on the British hotel and restaurant scene, and as a bon viveur, writer and television presenter, he has been a vigorous campaigner for improving culinary standards in this country.He is also the architect of the hotel’s regular programme of literary and cultural events, and over the past thirty-five years, he has attracted many of the world’s greatest chamber music ensembles to play at The Castle for its annual season of winter weekend festivals.My Archipelago is Kit’s fourth book. An Innkeeper’s Diary, published in 1999, is an amusing and waspish account of a year in his life at The Castle. And his two volumes of Great British Chefs were award-winning studies of the state of gastronomy in the UK.In 1989, Kit was appointed MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for his work in hospitality and the tourism industry.
All of our books are second hand, and while you may not get the exact copy shown in the picture, all of our books are in very good condition. Removing stickers from a book may damage it, so we refrain from doing so. If you see a price sticker on a book, please ignore it.
