Few foreigners are lucky enough to set foot on Tibetan soil, but Alec Le Sueur spent five extraordinary years there, working in the unlikeliest Holiday Inn in the world.

Against the breathtaking beauty of the Himalayas unfolds a highly amusing and enlightening account of his experiences, from fly infestations at state banquets, unexpected deliveries of live snakes, a predominance of yaks and everything yakrelated, insurmountable communication problems to a dead guest.

Le Sueur, the only Westerner since the days of Heinrich Harrer to spend so long in Tibet, provides a fascinating insight into a country that was only just opening up to the outside world, from what can only be described as the 'Fawlty Towers' of Lhasa.