Old Homes, New Life: The resurgence of the British country house

A few decades ago, people said the country house was finished. This sumptuously produced and lavishly illustrated study of 12 country houses – each occupied by the same family for hundreds of years – shows this is very far from the case. A new generation of young owners, often with children, have found new ways to live in these ancient and fragile places. They treasure their beauty while adapting and enhancing them for the 21st century.  This is a behind-the-scenes record of today’s aristocracy, reinventing the country-house way of life. Each family does this in its own way, maintaining the tradition of individualism, even eccentricity which is so much associated with country houses.

Dylan Thomas’s superb yet intimate photographs capture both the inhabitants of these houses and the spaces they occupy – from State dining to family kitchen, walled garden to attic.  This feast for the eyes is accompanied by an equally mouth-watering text by Clive Aslet, based on interviews with family members and his long experience of the subject through his years as editor of Country Life.

The book offers readers exclusive access to a dozen spectacular but private worlds: Madresfield Court, Loseley Park, Helmingham Hall, Burton Agnes Hall, Hutton-in-the-Forest, Doddington Hall, Broughton Castle, Hopetoun House, Firle Place, Grimsthorpe Castle, Powderham Castle, Inveraray Castle.

Hardcover: 304 pages
Publication Date: 1 July. 2020
Product Dimensions: 24.2 x 3.0 x 29.2 cm
ISBN: 978-1916355408