An Innkeeper's Diary

Published in 1931, this is John Fothergill's account of running the Spread Eagle at Thame in Oxfordshire from 1922 to 1930. Written as diary entries, it records the conversion of a market-town inn into a house that served particular food and wine and that refused guests Fothergill judged vulgar, mean, or dishonest. He notes menus, bills, quarrels with commercial travellers, and visits from writers and Oxford people. The book is a first-person innkeeping memoir: a record of rooms, kitchens, and the host's running argument with the idea that the customer is always right.

Quarter bound in green cloth with repeating green pattern decorated yellow paper covers and yellow spine label. Plain cream endleaves. Green slipcase.