Name: An Evening with Lyse Doucet
Start: 2025-10-22T19:00:00+01:00
End: 2025-10-22T20:30:00+01:00
Location: Southernhay URC Church

Join us for an evening of conversation, reflection, and storytelling as Lyse talks about book The Finest Hotel in Kabul
About this Event

This October, we’re beyond excited to welcome the iconic Lyse Doucet for a special evening to launch her debut book, The Finest Hotel in Kabul.

Lyse is one of the most trusted and recognisable voices in global journalism. From war zones to refugee camps, she’s spent over three decades reporting from the frontlines of history. Her storytelling is fearless, empathetic, and unforgettable.

Doucet's connection to Afghanistan began on Christmas Day 1988, the day after her 30th birthday, when she arrived at the Kabul Inter-Continental Hotel as a junior BBC reporter to cover the Soviet withdrawal. Today, she’s the BBC’s Chief International Correspondent, having led coverage of major global events from the Arab Spring to the Sudanese Civil War. And yet, the Inter-Continental remains close to her heart—she still visits whenever she’s in Kabul, and many of its staff and guests have become dear friends.Her debut book, The Finest Hotel in Kabul, tells the story of a hotel that opened in 1969 as a symbol of a modernising Afghanistan. Over the decades, it has stood through coups, civil war, foreign invasions, and the rise, fall, and rise again of the Taliban. Through the lives of the people who passed through its doors, Lyse paints a vivid and deeply personal portrait of Afghanistan’s recent history.Join us for an evening of conversation, reflection, and storytelling as Lyse shares insights from her remarkable career and the journey behind her book.

Hosting the conversation will be Katie Natanel. Katie is a writer, educator, researcher, editor and organiser at the University of Exeter whose work engages with gender, power, violence, decolonisation, creativity and everyday life with a focus on the Middle East.

The event will be held at Southernhay United Reformed Church, Southernhay East, Exeter, EX1 1QD

Tickets are £10, or £27 including a signed copy of the book (which is RRP £25). If you can't make the event but would still like a signed copy, get in touch.