Kit Chapman is the Proprietor of The Castle at Taunton. He is a well-known personality on the British hotel and restaurant scene, and as a bon viveur, writer and television presenter, he has been a vigorous campaigner for improving culinary standards in this country. He is also the architect of the hotel’s regular programme of literary and cultural events, and over the past forty years, he has attracted many of the world’s greatest chamber music ensembles to play at The Castle for its annual season of winter weekend festivals.
My Archipelago is Kit’s fourth book. An Innkeeper’s Diary, published in 1999, is an amusing and waspish account of a year in his life at The Castle. And his two volumes of Great British Chefs were award-winning studies of the state of gastronomy in the UK.
In 1989, Kit was appointed MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for his work in hospitality and the tourism industry.
Other titles by Kit Chapman: Great British Chefs (Octopus Publishing Group, 1989), Great British Chefs 2 (Mitchell Beazley, 1995), An Innkeeper’s Diary (Weidenfeld & Nicolson / Orion, 1999)