Lyse in line for award

Lyse Doucet – a sellout speaker at last year’s Festival – is on a shortlist of six authors for the Waterstones Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction 2026 with her book The Finest Hotel in Kabul.

The hotel in question is the Hotel Inter-Continental, which opened in Afghanistan in 1969 as a glamorous beacon of hope for the country.

In the five decades since, it has been hit by wars, terrorist attacks and the US occupation, and is now a dilapidated shell of its former self.

Since 1988 Lyse has stayed there numerous times in her role as  the BBC’s chief international correspondent, and her book tells an evocative history of modern Afghanistan through the stories of the staff and guests she met.

The winner will be crowned on 11 June.