[A] fantastically readable and endlessly fascinating book… Delicious, occasionally fantastical, revealing in ways that Downton Abbey never was. It is as if Tinniswood is at the biggest, wildest, most luxuriantly decadent party ever thrown, and he knows everyone.

Tinniswood and his publishers should be congratulated for issuing this elegant, encyclopedic and entertaining history… We are in the company of a confident and skilled historian who understands the mores of his era and wears his learning lightly… This is a handsomely illustrated pick’n’mix of mansions, manors, castles and palaces…. Tinniswood expands our Sunday evening viewing with the kind of detail you can’t invent… Deserves to be on every costume drama producer’s bookshelf.

He has produced a luscious, summery book, full of amiable anecdotes and photographs of striking interiors, celebrating headstrong optimists who defied the defeatism of the times. The Long Weekend resembles a well-kept hothouse festooned with fruit ripe for the plucking.

Wonderfully opulent, richly textured… The opening chapters of The Long Weekend paint an evocative picture… In telling us how the English country house changed, he is, of course, telling us how England changed too.

[A] masterpiece of social history.

Many of Tinniswood’s anecdotes are extraordinary… Painstakingly researched detail that makes The Long Weekend so entertaining… A rich, multilayered and well-illustrated account of a style of live that disappeared with the Second World War. Lovers of…Brideshead Revisited will relish it.

[A] deliciously jaunty and wonderfully knowledgeable book… Tinniswood displays a terrific insider’s grasp of gossip, while cramming his text with the stories of sport, sex, food, royalty, design, ruination and joy that defined these mansions… Meticulous, irresistible story.

This delicious book achieves completely what it sets out to do.

Tinniswood gives us many entertaining stories about the whimsical extravagances of the new country-housers… The Long Weekend is a celebration of fantasy and yearning cunningly wrapped up in pragmatism and practicality: about ancient castles with top-notch plumbing.

Almost indecently enjoyable… Splendidly contrary book… [Tinniswood has a] sharp pen and a squirrel’s eye for detail… Erudite, funny and oddly poignant.

A perfect piece of escapism…but also intelligent and scholarly social history.

Immaculately produced… Tinniswood is a wonderfully clear writer, lively and curious, and with a jaunty point of view.

A definitive social history that combines anecdote and narrative with scholarship.

A splendidly enjoyable summer-weekend read.

[It] provides rich detail from all corners, uncovering plenty of angst, but also much optimism.

Brimming with both architectural detail and social insight… [A] highly enjoyable book… This is a delicious cocktail of a book, combining many ingredients and presenting an informed survey of the interwar years as seductively as that period…demands.

Enchanting. However, while poignant, it’s also not without its robust historical points… Beautifully written.

[A] Detailed and fascinating study.

[It] promises rich tales of decadence, scandal and extravagant water features.

The rise, fall and transformation of English country houses between the two world wars…has seldom sounded so interesting. Meticulously researched.

[A} fascinating text… The book is a great read and a window on a lost world.

Beautifully illustrated… [It] overflows with entertaining detail.

Tinniswood uses lively local detail.

[It] combines a panoramic view of life and architecture in the interwar years with pin-sharp detail and the sort of springy prose that comes with complete command of the material.

This is a lively and hugely entertaining history… It’s packed with very funny anecdotes… A delight.

Tinniswood paints a vivid portrait of the period

A detailed and appreciated look at the phenomenon [of country houses]… Tinniswood writes elegantly, in complete charge of his material. The book is a joy to hold in your hand.

Wittily written and beautifully illustrated, Tinniswood’s book recreates a world far more peculiar, but at times rather more enviable, than any fictional version.

[A] compelling volume of social history.

[A] brilliant book about life in the English country house.

A scandal-packed glimpse into the glamourous Downton Abbey-esque world of English country houses… ****

Brit(ish) stands out from a crop of books on growing up mixed race in 70s Britain.

Brit(ish) is an essential read for all. Hirsch's exploration of her identity brings to light the difficulties of growing up as mixed-race and black in Britain. She also challenges the British perception of race, and how our inability to confront our past has profoundly affected our ability to coherently understand and discuss race in our present. Brit(ish) is a call to action, if we genuinely want to progress as a society, we must change our discussions and understanding of race.

A personal, political and challenging account of what it means to be British when you are racialised as Black. Hirsch is a brilliant and fearless intellect who deftly handles the complexity of the issues