This HaBO comes from Ann, who wants to find this older contemporary:
Here’s what I remember:
I purchased the book between 1988 – 1992 in Heathrow Airport and read it on the plane ride home. It’s a book about a spa/resort hotel in England set in the present day (that day being the late 1980’s). I think the overarching story is about the woman who ran the hotel, but it has all these other story lines about the life of the guests and the staff. Sort of like an episode of The Love Boat.
The only real “episode” I remember from the book is that one of the guests, who was very overweight, had sex with the masseuse during her massage. This was also the only time that the masseuse had ever cheated on his wife.
Not much to go on, I know. I don’t have much hope either since it was an airport purchase before the internet but it’s worth a shot.
Airport reads are often popular books (don’t get me started on how book sales in an airport work). Is this recognizable to anyone?
Unfortunately I don’t know the title of the book, but I’d love to know how book sales at an airport work.
Hope someone knows, sounds like a fun Summer read.
Sounds something like Staying at Daisy’s by Jill Mansell, though I don’t remember the massage sex. It’s a pretty good read even if it’s not The One.
Masseur–unless this was a very forward-thinking 80s book. 🙂
I’ll second the interest in how airport book sales work!
Hudson Booksellers is at most airports I’ve been tot. One can purchase books on their website (add .com) I may be under thinking the question of how airport books sales work. I would imagine they work very similarly to Barnes and Noble, or Book A Million. At least for Hudson is seems to be.
Okay, everyone! Here’s the quick and dirty about airport book sales and stock. Airport stores, if I recall, are their own separate category of book selling outlets. If you work in sales supplying books to stores, they are their own thing and aren’t lumped in with anything else. Both airport stores and big box stores (Target, Costco, etc.) operate on a sales per space model of stocking.
This means that they have a limited about of space for books and don’t really do online orders for customers. It’s why you typically see bestsellers in these outlets. They want to make sure the “space” they’re giving up for these books will be worth the money they intend to make. You aren’t going to see anything obscure or really niche. That’s why I think the book in question had to have been popular at the time or from a popular author, or else it wouldn’t necessarily have been stocked in an airport store.
Thanks for the info @Amanda.
It seems to me that if the book was bought at Heathrow it probably was a British
Publisher, but I’m afraid that won’t narrow the search much.
Sounds like something Maeve Binchy could have written, but when I looked up her backlist, didn’t see any hotel / resort set novels published in the right time period. The closest I found is Ladies Night at Finbar’s Hotel, edited by Dermot Bolger but it was published in 2000.
Found a list of bestsellers from the 90s put out by a British newspaper – nothing leaped out at me but it remind me of a couple more possible authors – Joanna Trollope or maybe Rosamunde Pilcher.
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/the-50-best-selling-books-of-the-1990s-1200522.html
Side comment – I went through Heathrow Airport in 1990 but I don’t remember anything about the bookstore. I do remember what I read on the plane – Nice Work by David Lodge. Our neighbor in Michigan gave it to me for the flight because it was by a British author. I remember it mostly because it was pretty disappointing as far as airplane reading went, although it was well written – I prefer more escapism in my travel reading and this was pretty drearily realistic.
It honestly sounds like something Judith Krantz or Jackie Collins would have written.
I was thinking Shirley Conran
Thank you all for your comments. It is very much in the Judith Krantz / Jackie Collins vein. There was way (way, way) to much sex to be Maeve Binchy. Since it was the first romance I purchased I would have recognized the author’s name and thought “okay, 6 hour flight where I don’t know anyone I’ll finally try a romance” I looked at Shirley Conran’s back list but didn’t see anything. Are there others like her from that era? Because that seems to be a good track to try.
As for the bookstore in Hethrow it was probably the equivalent of our Hudson’s – generic airport store that also sells books.