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In front of the hotel sits a deck chair printed with a facsimile of the original Penguin paperback of Raymond Chandler’s ‘Big Sleep’. Chandler was a great crime writer and many think the ‘Big Sleep’ his finest work, which made a superb movie and gave this hotel chain its name. In Chandler’s book the villain was hidden until near the end, but here the villain appears much earlier.
My regular readers will know my view that the current economic problems in the UK and the USA are caused by reckless and irresponsible gambling with funds by the banks themselves investing in financial instruments the bankers did not understand. I remain mystified firstly as to why this is a protected sector of the economy (they are both protected from paying out overcharges by the FSA and bailed out of their liquidity crisis by both US and UK governments) and why there have been no prosecutions over their betrayal of the trust of depositors and shareholders. The additional liquidity injected is not being used to free up the credit market, but to rebuild bonuses and extravagant wages of bank employees.
So when I tell you that the new Big Sleep which opened at the end of June in Eastbourne is half of what the company wanted to be opening at this stage in its development, I don’t think I need to point the finger for you to know who the villain was that prevented the simultaneous opening of a Big Sleep in Bournemouth, right at the start of my story. With Eastbourne representing an evolution of development of what the Managing Director Cosmo Fry refers to, tongue in cheek, as the company’s “Formica, fleece and fur” styling, it may be the delay will bring a further evolution to this successful operation, aimed as a top end two star.
Signage familiar from the Cheltenham property
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Reproduction of original Penguin book cover
Cosmo Fry, snagging list in hand, in a pink room
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