An Innkeeper's Diary. John Fothergill (Folio Edition Hardback & Slipcase)

AN INNKEEPER'S DIARY by John Fothergill.

Ilustrations by Peter Bailey

An Innkeeper's Diary was the first, the jauntiest and by far the most popular of the three volumes of diaries John Fothergill was to publish. Though it contains occaional bouts of self-pity of the 'I don't know why bother' variety, it is also the least reflective. But as he grew older, and a poor head for business forced him to move from the Spreadeagle first to The Royal Hotel, Ascot, and then to The Three Swans, Market Harborough, his tone turned from comical anger to lyrical melancholy, and he ruminated more on his past. 'In my bad moments I get again that heart-shaking remorse, regret and repentance for all the ignorance, vilolence, standing alone and lack of love towards everyone in my horrid past, and some  are dead and will never know my remorse and some I shall never see again,' he writes in MY THREE INN, adding, 'I have lived all my life with a broken heart.' From The Royal Hote, he goes on a religious retreat, and says to his confessor, 'i cannot pray - I can only repeat - the silly - little wish - I made when - stirring last Christmas pudding - that Kate - and the children - should be happy.' And there he left me in tears', Fothergill concludes, 'and I never saw him again.' 

A fourth Printing Folio Society hardback with Slipcase published in 2000