Waldorf Salad

The biggest mistake my father ever made was giving me a Saint book for my sixteenth birthday.

The Saint in New York started the downward spiral into an obsession with adventure stories, Leslie Charteris books and New York city.

In The Saint in New York, Simon Templar comes to America to 'clean up' the Big Apple - and he does so from a tower-suite at one of New York's swankiest hotels. The Waldorf Astoria - birthplace of the Waldorf Salad and home-away-from-home for the likes of Winston Churchill, Ian Fleming and Cole Porter - was the perfect place for the sublimely suave Simon Templar to rest his head between nocturnal misadventures.

Since I first read The Saint in New York, I've wanted to stay at the Astoria. And this weekend, I did! My best friend Gavin (and his friend Jules) came out to visit and kindly paid for Tina and I to stay at the Astoria while we had a night on the tiles.

Dressed up in our finest (I wore my most Roger-Moore three-piece suit) we had martinis in Cole Porter's bar, devoured steaks at the Bull & Bear and then went for a nightcap at the Plaza Hotel (which resembles a building site and grossly overcharges even by the standards of New York City's swankiest five star hotels.)

Since Tina and I are being as careful with our pennies as possible, it was an incredible opportunity to experience the Astoria. We'd never have allowed ourselves to do it on our own (even if we'd been able to afford it!) Thanks, Gavin!