The Country House Revealed

Jan 10, 2025 4:45 PM

Author:Dan Cruickshank

Spanning the architectural history of the country house from the disarming Elizabethan charm of South Wraxall, the classical rigour of Kinross in Scotland, the majesty and ingenuity of Hawksmoor's Easton Neston, the Palladian sweep of Wentworth Woodhouse, with over 300 rooms and frontage of 600 feet, the imperial exuberance of Clandeboye, through to the ebullient vitality of Lutyens' Marshcourt, the stories of these houses tell the story of our nation.

All are the are buildings of the greatest architectural interest, each with a fascinating human story to tell, and all remain private homes that are closed to the public. But their owners have opened their doors and allowed Dan Cruickshank to roam the corridors and rummage in the cellars as he teases out the story of each house - who built them, the generations who lived in them, and the families who lost them. Along the way he has uncovered tales of excess and profligacy, tragedy, comedy, power and ambition.

And as these intriguing narratives take shape, Dan shows how the story of each house is inseparable from the social and economic history of Britain. Each one is built as a wave of economic development crests, or crumbles. Each one's architecture and design is thus expressive of the aims, strengths and frailties of those who built them. Together they plot the psychological, economic and social route map of our country's ruling class in a rich new telling of our island story.

Reviews

Cruickshank's fascinating book is an eloquent advocate for history as encapsulated in these houses. It is refreshing in its enthusiasm, and makes a fervent plea for families, wherever possible, to remain the true, continuing and discriminating protectors of our national inheritance.

—— Spectator

Pakistan's best and bravest reporter

—— Christopher Hitchens

A journalist of the highest narrative and analytic gifts

—— Max Hastings

His knowledge of events and people there is second to none

—— Kim Sengupta

A superb work on the future of Pakistan, a country many people deem the world's most dangerous

—— Bruce Riedel , Washington Post

Ahmed Rashid has established a well-earned reputation as a meticulous, reliable and authoritative chronicler of events in south-west and central Asia ... Unlike many journalists ... Rashid does have the courage to outline how he believes the catastrophic situation in both his homeland (Pakistan) and its neighbour, Afghanistan, can be improved

—— Jason Burke , Guardian

Rashid assembles a broad network of sources on all sides of the debate and is probing in his treatment of all the main actors ... a powerful and pacey primer

—— Shiraz Maher , Spectator

Profoundly learned and a cracking good read

—— AN Wilson , Spectator

Richly colourful and wittily observed

—— Dominic Sandbrook , Sunday Times

Absorbing

—— Daily Mail

A glorious read!

—— Mojomums

Highly readable and illuminating ... Mishra's analysis of Muslim reactions is particularly topical

—— David Goodall , Tablet

Enormously ambitious but thoroughly readable, this book is essential reading for everyone who is interested in the processes of change that have led to the emergence of today's Asia

—— Amitav Ghosh , Wall Street Journal

Sophisticated ... not so much polemic as cri de coeur, motivated by Mishra's keen sense of the world, East and West, hurtling towards its own destruction

—— Tehelka, New Delhi

Outstanding ... Mishra wears his scholarship lightly and weaves together the many strands of history into a gripping narrative ... The insights afforded by this book are too many to be enumerated ... Mishra performs a signal service to the future - by making us read the past in a fresh light

—— The Hindu, New Delhi

[Full of] complexity and nuance

—— Mail Today

Subtle, erudite and entertaining

—— Financial Express

Mishra allows the reader to see the events of two centuries anew, through the eyes of the journalists, poets, radicals and charismatics who criss-crossed Europe and Asia

—— Free Press Journal

A vital, nuanced argument ... prodigious

—— Mint

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