For the first time in many years, I am working with my mother, Olga. We have just bought a 38-bedroom hotel in East Sussex, in the medieval village of Alfriston. It will close at the beginning of November while we completely transform it. We will open again in June for South Downs walkers, cyclists, Glyndebourne-goers, visitors to the Bloomsbury-group property Charleston, and lovers of an escapist stay away. It has been a long time coming. First, we opened Hotel Tresanton in 1998. Then in 2004, OP, as her closest work colleagues call her, bought Hotel Endsleigh in Devon, and I spent the year project-managing the renovation, and then from 2005 to 2008 as the manager. My mother says that rather too many stories about my time in tenure have the phrase “and then Alex opened a bottle of champagne”. But on the positive side, there were very few letters of complaint.