When the Inter-Continental Kabul opened in 1969, Afghanistan’s first luxury hotel symbolised a dream of a modernising country connected to the world. More than fifty years on, the Inter-Continental is still standing. Lyse Doucet has been checking in since 1988. Here, she uses the hotel’s story to craft a richly immersive history of modern Afghanistan.

It is the story of Hazrat, the septuagenarian housekeeper who still holds fast to his 
Inter-Continental training from the hotel’s 1970s glory days – when Kabul was the ‘Paris 
of Asia’. It is the story of Abida, who became the first female chef to cook in the hotel’s famous kitchen after the fall of the Taliban in 2001. And it is the lives of Malalai and Sadeq, the twentysomething staff who seized every opportunity offered by two decades of 
fragile democracy – only to witness the Taliban roaring back in 2021.

‘The Finest Hotel in Kabul plays to all Lyse Doucet’s strengths. Clarity, empathy, depth of knowledge and innate grasp of fine detail. Her subject is not just a hotel, but a hotel that tells the story of four decades of Afghanistan’s proud and sometimes unbelievably painful history.’
– Michael Palin

‘A tender, wise and quietly devastating book.’
– Peter Frankopan

‘I’ve been waiting for a Lyse Doucet book for a long time and what she has produced here is testament to her humanity as well as her journalistic eye.’
– Mishal Husain

‘A book brimming with deep insight, courage and conscience. Everyone should read this. Astonishingly beautiful, subtle and simply unforgettable.’
– Elif Shafak

Doors open at 4.30pm.
This event is being held at the Tait Hall, Kelso, TD5 7BS.
Please read our accessibility guide for more information.