The Old Hall Hotel is at its heart a collection of intertwining stories about a hotel which still accepts permanent guests- a struggling writer comes to stay to report on the rumours of it closing and begins to meet each of the eccentric guests, writing their life stories in the hope of raising awareness about the hotel in the hope that it will remain open. Although the hotel is inspired by the Old Hall Hotel in Buxton, Derbyshire, the story and its characters are entirely fictional. PROLOGUE ‘This is indeed a very special place with its own special feeling’ Daniel Defoe, 1727 about The Old Hall Hotel in Buxton, Derbyshire. I realise that writers feel that they own things more than other people. I realise that they sit in cafes and theatres and absorb people. They decide people’s lives based on their outfit. Their upbringing from their speech and language. I understand that as a writer you have probably measured me up already. What you don’t understand is that as soon as the couple leave their table, or their theatre seats or leave their hat behind on the bus...the story doesn’t end. THEIR story doesn’t end. Or perhaps you haven’t been so careless? Perhaps you haven’t forgotten them or made them an interesting quirk to flesh out a character you have already written. Perhaps you stole them and created a book around them. The thing is, you may have gone off on a tangent in your head because of the ketchup sachet the couple opened but didn’t touch, or the way she flinched when he tried to take her hand but lives DO go on. Stories end. Lives...they don’t. Ever. Not ever. So write your stories. Write whatever you want. But don't expect people to believe them.
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