Product Description

The English Country House takes a look at the architecture and interiors of sixty-two stunning houses in a range of architectural styles spanning seven centuries—from the medieval Stokesay Castle to the newly built, Lutyens-inspired Corfe Farm—brought to life through the world-renowned photography library of Country Life. More than four hundred color and black and white illustrations provide an insight into the architecture, decoration, gardens, and landscape settings of these houses, which are set into their architectural and historical context by the accompanying text and extended captions.
 
The book provides an entrée into the houses to which Country Life has had privileged access over the years, many of which are still private homes, often occupied by descendants of the families that built them. Punctuating the book at intervals in the form of booklets on rich, uncoated paper are six essays by leading British architectural historians that set the English country house into its social context and chart the changing tastes in decorating and collecting, the development of ancillary buildings, gardens and landscapes, and finally, its influence in the United States. 
 

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5285 in Books
• Published on: 2009-10-06
• Released on: 2009-10-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 484 pages

Review
An unprecedented look at quintessential English country house interiors and architecture, from the epitome of English Tudor to the twentieth-century manor house.

"[The English Country House] is a feast of photos, and a tribute to the fine homes that have been featured in Country Life…[and] is a gorgeous tour that’s sure to inspire craving for a hot cuppa, if not a trip to the emerald isle." ~BookPage

About the Author
Mary Miers is architectural writer, arts and books editor for Country Life. Her previous career was in architectural conservation, and she established and ran Scotland's Buildings at Risk Register in the 1990s.  Her books include The Western Seaboard: An Illustrated Architectural Guide and American Houses: The Architecture of Fairfax & Sammons.  Her home is in the Highlands of Scotland.  Marcus Binney is an architectural journalist well-known for his work in the British conservation movement. Tim Knox is director of Sir John Soane's Museum in London.  Jeremy Musson is a former architectural editor of Country Life. Tim Richardson is a former gardens editor of Country Life. John Martin Robinson is the author of several books on British architecture. Geoffrey Tyack is the director of the Stanford University Centre in Oxford.

Customer Reviews

A stunning must-have for country house enthusiasts
I own a great number of books on English country houses, and adding a new one to the collection comes with an ever increasing risk of redundancy. Mary Miers, however, has succeeded in creating one of the most glorious books of its kind, and moreover one that consistently highlights houses that are passed over in other works. So don't expect to find Wilton, Chatsworth, Castle Howard or Blenheim in these pages. But do expect to find a great number of smaller and/or lesser known houses, revealed in loving detail and thus shown to be every bit as beautiful and interesting as their more famous neighbours. Some of these are in fact quite famous themselves, but for some reason hardly ever shown in books on country houses, such as Wrotham Park, which featured in a substantial number of TV-series and movies.

The photography is quite simply superb and generously covers interiors, exteriors, outbuildings and gardens. There are atmospheric shots of dreamy Elizabethan manors, but there's also a breathtaking aerial view of Newby Hall. Interiors are naturally lit so that colours and atmosphere feel very true. Many of the rooms shown have inviting, lived-in look. Every image is well-considered, many are large-size, and all are razor-sharp.

Houses are covered chronologically, from Elizabethan and Jacobean times right into the twentieth century. Texts are clear, brief and to the point. On several places in the book brief topical essays are bound in, printed on smaller size pages of a heavy, textured paper, which looks very classy indeed. These illuminating texts address such specific subjects as the country house interior or its garden.

In all, an endless treasure trove (this is a brick of a book!) brimful of delights, that no country house enthusiast should miss! It may look pricey, but it's worth every penny. Put this on your coffee table and you won't have to think about a way to entertain your guests.

Glorious book
This is an absolute must for every Anglophile! The photographs are simply beautiful and the text informative and accurate. Not only for a coffee table, but for real study of teh architecture and history of each period.