Mr. Badger and the Difficult Duchess
Mr
   Â
Badger
and the
       Â
Difficult Duchess
Leigh HOBBS
First published in 2011
Copyright © Leigh Hobbs 2011
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. The
Australian Copyright Act 1968
(the Act) allows a maximum of one chapter or ten per cent of this book, whichever is the greater, to be photocopied by any educational institution for its educational purposes provided that the educational institution (or body that administers it) has given a remuneration notice to Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) under the Act.
Allen & Unwin
83 Alexander Street
Crows Nest NSW 2065 Australia
Phone: (61 2) 8425 0100
Fax: (61 2) 9906 2218
Email: [email protected]
Web:
www.allenandunwin.com
Cataloguing-in-Publication entry is available from
the National Library of Australia
www.trove.nla.gov.au
ISBN 978 1 74237 419 2
Cover and text design by Sandra Nobes
Set in 15 pt Cochin by Sandra Nobes
Author photograph by Peter Gray
This book was printed in January 2011 at McPherson's Printing Group,
76 Nelson Street, Maryborough, Victoria 3465, Australia
www.mcphersonsprinting.com.au
The author wishes to acknowledge the invaluable assistance of the Badger gang,
Erica Wagner, Sandra Nobes and Elise Jones.
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
For Andrea Reece
Contents
6 The Special Guest's Requests
M
r Badger had excellent manners plus a great deal of patience. But you probably knew that already.
This is why he didn't
just
manage special events at the Boubles Grand Hotel (pronounced
Boublay
). Mr Badger was also the Manager of Special Guests â and sometimes
very
special guests.
Special guests weren't treated all that differently to anyone else. It was just that film stars and princesses, kings, queens and famous orchestra conductors often caused a fuss because people wanted to stare at them and point. Or ask them for their autographs while they ate their dinner in the Boubles Grand Hotel Dining Room, or enjoyed afternoon tea in the lounge.
And one must say that special guests
were
often quite demanding when it came to their rooms and meals, just for a start. Celebrities are used to being the centre of attention, so naturally when they stayed at the Boubles Grand Hotel they expected a lot of looking after.
Some
extremely
important people wore disguises in the dining room. Others preferred to keep out of reach and stay in their rooms, away from their fans and the staring public. They were the ones who didn't like being looked at.
Some guests went to a lot of trouble so as not
to be recognised.
Mr Badger knew this from experience.
After all, you couldn't possibly have people interrupting a king or queen to ask for their autograph while they were eating breakfast. Or, worse still, pestering them to pose for a photograph while they were holding a piece of toast or eating cornflakes.
E
ach guest at the Boubles Grand Hotel was important, and every one of them was treated with the utmost courtesy by the staff.
Still, Miss Pims, Mr Badger's helpful assistant, always left a note in Mr Badger's diary if someone special â say a duke, or a famous actor, or the latest celebrity â had reserved a suite at the Boubles Grand Hotel.
On this particular day, Mr Badger arrived for work in the early hours as he always did and opened his diary to study the coming day's events.
Every day there were all manner of things for Mr Badger to do and check and order and look at. And every one of them was carefully noted in his diary by Miss Pims.
Every morning Mr Badger checked his diary.
For instance, today the diary said:
1. Order flowers for the Philatelic
Society Annual Dinner to be held tonight
in the Grand Ballroom.
(Sir Cecil and Lady Celia were the patrons of the stamp-collectors' society. This was the members' chance to meet and swap stamps.)
2. Clean the chandelier and polish the
floors in the Grand Ballroom.