Caroline Raphael obituary

Caroline Raphael, who has died of Parkinson’s disease aged 85, was for 20 years editor-in-chief of The Good Hotel Guide. She had worked on every edition from the first, in 1978, until her retirement in 2021, when the 2022 edition had gone to press.

The Guide was launched by the literary agent Hilary Rubinstein, on the model of Raymond Postgate’s Good Food Guide. When Rubinstein invited Caroline, a neighbour, to become involved, she could not have guessed that it would become a consuming interest for the next 45 years.