The other day a wonderful book arrived in the mail, sent by my relatives from Hungary. Titled Grand 150, it was published in 2023 to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Grand Hotel, situated on Margaret Island in the heart of Hungary’s capital city, Budapest.

My relatives knew that the beautifully illustrated book, tracing the history of the Grand Hotel from its opening in 1873 to the present, would have great meaning for me. In fact, I could have been one of the people featured, as my one and only stay in the hotel occurred in the early 1940s when my parents and I spent a summer holiday there, not far from where we lived. Much later, my many holidays on the island were spent at the adjacent Thermal Hotel, but I visited the Grand often.