Though 'the hotel had a reputation as the area’s best, its staff were not used to looking after world leaders, so the arrival of Cuba’s new strongman, Fidel Castro, came as something of a shock.'

@dcsandbrook on @simonhallwriter's 'Ten Days in Harlem'.

http://ow.ly/I63850Bvs10

'After all, who knows what anybody is really like, or what they really think? The biographer – same as a painter of portraits – cannot help but reproduce himself to some degree.'

From the archive: Beryl Bainbridge talks to Sebastian Shakespeare.

https://literaryreview.co.uk/sebastian-shakespeare-talks-to-beryl-bainbridge