Lyse Doucet

Lyse Doucet first arrived at the Kabul Inter-Continental Hotel on Christmas Day 1988, the day after her thirtieth birthday. Visiting Afghanistan to cover the withdrawal of Soviet troops following their disastrous decade-long occupation, shewas immediately taken by the faded grandeur of the hotel and the warm hospitality of its staff.

Over the course of the next four decades, Lyse would report on many of the most significant moments in world history – from the Arab Spring to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and many wars in the Middle East – ultimately becoming one of the world’s best-respected war correspondents and the Chief International Correspondent for the BBC. But through everything, she has always found herself drawn back to her Afghan home, the hotel most people just call the ‘Inter-Con’. Here, she draws upon years of conversations with its staff and guests to tell the story that only she can.