The author, who describes himself in 'Who's Who?' as a 'Pioneering Amateur Innkeeper' was the first to make the profession of innkeeping smart as well as respectable The 'Spreadeagle' in Thame, near Oxford, became a mecca for the glitterati of his day - Shaw, Wells, Rebecca West, Evelyn Waugh, David Garnett, the Sitwells and 'GK', and artists such as John, Tonks and Nash Actors, actresses and even heads of state came to visit - and listen