Description

‘Enthralling’ Lucy Worsley

‘Wonderful’ Judith Flanders

‘A whirling, waltzing panorama through the last carefree age of British nobility’ New Statesman

Adrian Tinniswood opens the doors on the excess, intrigue and absurdities of life in the late Victorian and Edwardian country house

In the decades before the First World War, the owners of the nation’s stately homes revelled in a golden age of glory and glamour. This was a time when the ancestral seats of ancient nobility stood side by side with the fabulous palaces of Jewish bankers and Indian princes, when dukes and duchesses mixed with self-made millionaires and society hostesses who had learned to dance in the chorus line.

Adrian Tinniswood opens the doors to the country house during this glittering golden age, when – for the privileged few – life in the country house was the best life of all.

‘Fascinating’ TLS

‘Illuminating’ Literary Review

‘The range and scope of his book is breathtaking’ Country Life

With stunning full-colour images

Publisher Review

Adrian Tinniswood has done it again. His trademark blend of glamour, scholarship and superlative storytelling makes this an enthralling read. — Lucy Worsley A wonderful book. There is no one better than Adrian Tinniswood to explore the dichotomy of the great country houses of Britain in the long prewar period, as he shows us ancestral hangings mixed with new telephone exchanges, coronation robes with marble swimming baths that doubled as ballrooms. — Judith Flanders Scintillating and brilliant, from a master of the subject. The book is like sitting down to dinner with a fascinating companion – it is deeply learned but also erudite, conversational, and interesting. A beautiful portrait of the Victorian and the Edwardian country house, full of analysis and anecdotes. — Gareth Russell Entertaining… One of the most enjoyable aspects of this book is the palpable excitement felt by late 19th-century owners about their houses’ newfangled features * The Times * Shot through with Prof Tinniswood’s signature sardonic wit and delicious one-liners… Anyone who wielded cultural clout is here. The range and scope of his book is breathtaking. — Timothy Mowl * Country Life * Entertaining… Illuminating… A pleasure to read — Jane Ridley * Literary Review * A whirling, waltzing panorama through the last carefree age of British nobility…[Tinniswood has] a terrific eye for detail and anecdote, all the better to show the country house in its most extreme age of pomp, profligacy and exuberance * New Statesman * [Tinniswood] welcomes the reader into a world of glamour and mad extravagance… Whichever stately home door he opens, he has an enjoyable story about the residents… what a wonderful bird’s eye view Tinniswood give us * Jewish Chronicle * Tinniswood covers hundreds of fascinating houses from the famous to the under-sung that we really should know about… The tone is wry; the excesses on display sometimes jaw – dropping. * Times Literary Supplement * A significant part of social history, led by Adrian Tinniswood. — Telegraph