Heartbreak Hotel ; When Lana Van Selman, an Eccentric Russian, Decided to Convert a Norwich Telephone Exchange Into a Glamorous Hotel, Little Did She Realise That the Project Would Cost Her Millions, She'd Fall Out with Her Staff and Be Driven Half Crazy in the Process. Jill Parkin Meets Her

Summary

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Big, baroque and beautiful, St Giles House, an old telephone exchange in Norwich, was just another of those buildings that nobody loved enough to rescue.

For nine years it stood empty, while sane and sensible property developers waited for it to be replaced with a convenient empty space. Enter a Russian.

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Extract

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Heartbreak Hotel ; When Lana Van Selman, an Eccentric Russian, Decided to Convert a Norwich Telephone Exchange Into a Glamorous Hotel, Little Did She Realise That the Project Would Cost Her Millions, She'd Fall Out with Her Staff and Be Driven Half Crazy in the Process. Jill Parkin Meets Her

Not a squillionaire entrepreneur shopping for football clubs, but a small and curvy Muscovite with long, blonde hair and a passion for sensuous interior design. Lana Van Selman fell in love with 100- year-old St Giles. It was an illadvised desire: it almost drove her mad; it cost her all she had and more; but it fulfilled something deep in her soul.

'Now we have the most beautiful hotel,' she purrs. 'It's comfortable and, truly, it's erotic. I went out of my way to ma...

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