Star of Channel 4’s The Hotel and real-life Basil Fawlty Mark Jenkins was on hand to sign copies of his new book for eager fans in Kingston this afternoon.
The former manager of The Grosvenor Hotel, Torquay, claimed he had never read a book before sitting down to write The World According to Manager Mark.
Manager Mark has been through a few careers in his time, a singer retired at the grand old age of 16, a panto king earlier this year, reality TV star and now author, he has no plans to return to the hotel business.
He said: “My life is ten times better than putting up with a load of staff running a hotel.
“Today I’m doing a book signing, how exciting is that. I’m in a book shop and I don’t even read books.
“I’m one of the few people who can actually claim they’ve written more books than they’ve read.”
Manager Mark drew an unlikely comparison with a fellow proud non-book reader, he joked: “I actually quote Kanye West several times in my book.”
“Beginning of the year, I was in panto, I was a king, I swapped my hotel for a palace and became a king,” he said with a huge smile on his face.
He certainly seems more suited to the stage than the hotel business, having once used a toaster to make his Sunday roast.
“My oven broke at home and I love my Sunday dinner.
“I had to cook my Sunday dinner without an oven, so I bought frozen Yorkshires, flattened them down and stuck them in the toaster.”
The World According to Manager Mark is published by John Blake Books.
