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Hotel Babylon
Hotel Babylon
Oct 30, 2024 3:21 PM

Author:Imogen Edwards-Jones

Hotel Babylon

'Something strange occurs to guests as soon as they check in. Even if in real life they are perfectly well-mannered, decent people with proper balanced relationships, as soon as they spin through the revolving hotel doors the normal rules of behaviour no longer seem to apply.'

All of the following is true.Only the names have been changed to protect the guilty. All the anecdotes, the stories, the characters, the situations, the highs, the lows, the scams, the drugs, the misery, the love, the death and the insanity are exactly as was told by Anonymous - someone who has spent his whole career working in hotels at the heart of London's luxury hotel industry. However, for legal reasons, the stories now take place in a fictitious hotel known as Hotel Babylon. More than a decade is compressed into a day. Everything else is as it should be. The rich spend money, the hotel makes money and the chambermaids still fight the bellboys over a two-pound coin.It's just another twenty-four hours in an expensive London hotel.

Reviews

Informative, disgusting and utterly fascinating

—— Closer

Reading Hotel Babylon is like mainlining Popbitch

—— Metro

A 5-Star read. Imogen Edwards-Jones takes readers on a brilliant romp that's just as luxurious as the presidential suite and definitely a whole lot funnier

—— Candace Bushnell

Makes shock revelation after shock revelation

—— Daily Mail

Fascinating

—— Daily Telegraph

Explosive

—— Sun

Five stars for excess... amusing and appalling

—— Sunday Telegraph

An eye-opener...with plenty of tips for the frequent traveller

—— The Economist

His sweeping and compellingly told history – and there is no more accessible and vivid survey available – is about hubristic ambition as much as stunning achievement.

—— Guardian

Magisterial ... [The Gene] will confirm [Mukherjee] as our era’s preeminent popular historian of medicine. The Gene boasts an even more ambitious sweep of human endeavor than its predecessor ... Mukherjee punctuates his encyclopaedic investigations of collective and individual heritability, and our closing in on the genetic technologies that will transform how we will shape our own genome, with evocative personal anecdotes, deft literary allusions, wonderfully apt metaphors, and an irrepressible intellectual brio

—— Elle magazine (US)

[It] takes a monumental and complex subject which is woven into every part of our lives and makes it both gripping and accessible.

—— Mark Haddon , Guardian

Not just first-class science writing but an important intellectual contribution in its own right.

—— Philip Ball , Prospect

He writes with the natural flate of a seasoned novelist… [The Gene] is a pleasure to read… This is an exceptional book, and I thoroughly recommend it to every inquisitive person.

—— Tabish Khair , Daily Mail

The book is compassionate, tautly synthesized… A page-turner.

—— Jennifer Senior , New York Times

Mukherjee is an outstanding guide…[The Gene] is a remarkably instructive, stimulating and, at every level of its generous construction, artful work of popular science.

—— Gregory Radick , Times Literary Supplement

Visceral and thought-provoking descriptions of the horrors of early-twentieth-century US eugenics.

—— Matthew Cobb , Nature

Virtuoso performance… Remarkably clear and compelling prose… Glorious tour of human genetics.

—— Abigail Zuger , New York Times

Remarkable and thought-provoking book… Mukherjee explores in considerable and lucid detail… What he does magnificently is trace the history of the gene in illuminating detail… If you want to know what is happening now, this is an essential read.

—— Simon Griffith , Mail on Sunday

Outstanding... an exceptional writer

—— The Times

A sweeping history of genetic theory and a considered look at where it might lead us in the future.

—— Mail on Sunday, Book of the Year

Dazzling... There is nothing about Gene that is less than nuanced.

—— Sathnam Sanghera , The Times

A magnificent synthesis of the science of life, and forces all to confront the essence of that science as well as the ethical and philosophical challenges to our conception of what constitutes being human

—— Paul Berg, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry

Wise and lucid...excellent

—— Andrew Marr , BBC Radio 4 Start the Week

A tourist guide to the new Africa, the human genome… Mukherjee gives an exhaustive account of the development of the modern science of inheritance… Mukherjee does a good job of cutting away the web of ambiguity and complexity’

—— Steve Jones , New Statesman

Written with the rollicking enthusiasm of sports journalism… Mukherjee has an ear for his subject’s rhetorical brilliance.

—— Andrew Solomon , Guardian Weekly

Meticulous… Carefully constructed, deliberate prose.

—— Sumit Paul-Choudary , Literary Review

Makes a compelling case that our ability to harness the medical benefits of genomic science while avoiding its hazards promises to be among the defining challenges of the 21st century.

—— Andrew Ward , Financial Times

Mukherjee has done readers an admirable service, by turning one of the most important scientific sagas – arguably the most important – in history into a tale that is too good not to know

—— Globe and Mail

Rather wonderful book… All-encompassing and eye-opening and moving and amusing, at times, and endlessly fascinating and truly brilliant… As long as intelligent, empathetic, thoughtful people like himself are to the forefront, it should turn out alright.

—— Darragh McManus , Irish Independnet

An accessible and beautifully written overview of the complex field of genetics by the Indian-born doctor. It’s compellingly personal and provocative, too.

—— Telegraph

Mukherjee views his subject panoptically from a great and clarifying height, yet also intimately.

—— James Gleick , Scotland on Sunday

Dr Mukherjee uses personal experience to particularly good effect… He writes tenderly.

—— The Economist

[A] Magisterial historical survey.

—— Philip Ball , Chemistry World

Mukherjee has a gift for making gripping, vivid narrative out of the cataclysmic but largely invisible drama of molecular biology.

—— Lev Grossman , Time Magazine

Compelling

—— Stuart Ritchie , Spectator

Fascinating, complex and accessible.

—— Anna Carey , Irish Times

Intimate, insider’s account of the role that genetics.

—— Nilanjana Roy , Financial Times

A tourist guide to the twenty-first century’s uncharted continent, the human genome... Gives a full and lively account of the development of the subject... He has talked to many of the main players and gives deep insights into their moments of discovery... Mukherjee does a good job of cutting away the web of ambiguity and complexity that scientists have woven.

—— Steve Jones , New Statesman

A daring and highly personal voyage into the future of genetic research

—— Vogue

The Gene’s dominant traits are historical breadth, clinical compassion, and Mukherjee’s characteristic graceful style… Mukherjee writes eloquently

—— Nathaniel Comfort , Atlantic

A fine read, with many fine stories.

—— David McConnell , Irish Times

[It is] accessible and beautifully written… It’s compellingly personal and provocative, too.

—— Daily Telegraph

The Gene is a staggeringly impressive piece of writing… [It] takes us on a fascinating journey through the world of genetics… Written with a clarity that brings the most complex concepts to life… An accessible, gripping and thought-provoking read. In short, this book is a masterpiece and you should read it.

—— Jamie Durrani , Chemistry World

An essential read.

—— Mail on Sunday

Inspiring and tremendously evocative

—— San Francisco Chronicle

A fascinating read

—— Hugh Jackman

You may think this book is not for you. Thing again… My only caution would be not to recommend it to too many people… So whether you’re a teacher or parent attempting to inspire…or you simply want an erudite anecdote, this book is for you. It’s a dazzling example of scientific story-telling and definitely my book of the year.

—— Cath Murray , School's Week

An epic 150-year, 500-plus page journey of genetic discovery… [An] excellent and authoritative account.

—— Charalambos Kyriacou , Times Higher Education

This is a brilliantly readable celebration of the science and scientists who have transformed out understanding of what it means to be human.

—— Nick Rennison , Daily Mail

The Gene is a truly impressive achievement… Mukherjee has created a masterwork of the history of the gene and its study. In this popular science book, scientist and non-scientist readers alike will feel they have a true understanding of the history, biology and ethics of genetics.

—— Bio News

He deftly lays out a history of the gene… One of the great science books of the decade with an engagingly enthusiastic personality at its heart.

—— Saga Magazine

[A]superbly written tale.

—— Stephen Meyler , RTE Guide

Mukherjee writes with clarity and passion… This should prove a fascinating read for anyone interested in understanding how far the study of the gene has taken us, particularly with respect to medicine, and where the future may lie.

—— Emma McConnell , Pharmaceutical Journal

Ambitious and honest, The Gene sheds light on both our past and future.

—— Kitty Knowles , Memo

Mukherjee’s text brims with potential… Surely The Gene has to be the new bible for a new generation of aspiring biologists, biochemists and, frankly, thinking people? So whether you’re a teacher or parent attempting to inspire a reluctant teen to get excited about science, or you simply want an erudite anecdote, this book is for you. It’s a dazzling example of scientific story-telling, and definitely my book of the year.

—— School's Week

If you want a good overview of the history of the gene, you can’t go wrong starting here.

—— Paul Cheney , Nudge

A provocative and engaging [read].

—— Independent Nurse

Mukherjee’s prose tends to be lavish, but this befits the weighty topic, and his explanatory style is clear yet enveloping… Compelling scientific and medical storytelling… A spectacular effort from an author I hopes has plenty more tales to tell.

—— Euan Ashley , Lancet

An essential guide to biology.

—— Gentleman's Journal, Book of the Year

A brilliant, chunky, study of genes.

—— William Leith , Evening Standard

This book captures the progression from that intuitive sense of genetics to its birth as a veritable science and, for better or for worse, its evolution into a powerful tool… The book ends not with a conclusion, but with a feeling of anticipation… In many ways, The Gene is a call for caution and for a thoughtful consideration of the possibilities that progress may bring… When genes become tools, what will those tools be used for? As we try to answer that question, Mukherjee’s book asks us to carefully look back before we continue to move forward

—— Claire McDaniel & Daniel Marchalik , British Medical Journal

A comprehensive – and gripping – history of the gene

—— Emma Finamore , Memo
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