This is an article from a Good Hotel Guide monthly newsletter - one of the most authoritative and independent sources of good places to stay in the UK and Ireland. Register online to receive free regular updates on special offers provided by best hotels in Midlands,check memorable hotels in Ireland or best deals of hotels in Wales, see selected most charming hotels in Scotland and all other regions. London has acquired the dubious reputation as the libel capital of the world. The Guide is relatively safe from its sharp claws because we select only good hotels leaving the dross to anonymous travellers' tales. The law of libel, however, is so weighted in favour of claimants, that even we have to be careful. Hotels can and do sue. Shortly after a Conservative Party Conference in Blackpool many years ago, Sir Edward du Cann, then a key figure in the party, told me that he had been bitten 34 times on his right buttock while peacefully asleep in his bed at the most expensive and celebrated hotel in the city. Denis Thatcher, also, so he claimed, had been attacked by the same beast. As I was then the political editor of The Observer, this was too good a piece of gossip to waste. Regretting only that that the Iron Lady herself appeared to have escaped unscathed, I fed the news of the flea that had ravaged the Tory conference to the Observer's Pendennis column. A week later a missive arrived from the Imperial Hotel in Blackpool saying that the whole establishment had had to be fumigated, and demanding an abject apology and substantial damages. The writ threw the Observer's management into a state of gloom. They made clear that, as the guilty party, I was responsible for getting them out of this hole. And very expensive it was, not helped by the fact that Denis Thatcher on mature reflection decided he had been bitten, not by a flea but by a sea midge, The moral of this story is that if you want to go to the Jewel of the North be very careful where you park your right buttock. We have four selected hotels in the city, all of which can be guaranteed to give you a peaceful night. For those who have an appetite for more and better particulars of this grisly story, you can read it in my book Grotesque Libels, published by Corgi. It was published originally by W.H. Allen under the tile: 'My Learned Friends.'
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