Ever since the English aristocracy embarked on the Grand Tour in the seventeenth century, a passion for collecting has become a national trait. This is reflected not only in England's aristocratic palaces and ancient manors, but in more modest residences, too. Romantic English Homes features 14 such homes. Large or small, old or new, they all exude typical English style: massed objects intentionally mingling a variety of styles and tastes, with the classical placed next to the gothic, and plaid checks alongside floral prints. Criss-crossing the country, from Dorset, Devon, and Cornwall to East Anglia and Suffolk, from London to Staffordshire and Northumberland, it is both the romantic timelessness of these properties and their comfortable, many-layered appearance that makes them so alluring and romantic to modern eyes.

Britain’s stately homes and grand housesare among its greatest treasures, andThe Most Amazing Stately Homes inBritain brings you the grandest, mostmagnificent, eccentric and unusual ofthem all. This wonderfully illustratedregional touring guide describes eachhouse and tells its story, following theebb and flow of fortune and fame.Every house has something that setsit apart from the rest: the magnificentfour-storey Tudor tower (set in worldfamous gardens) of Sissinghurst inKent; sumptuous painted cloth wallhangingsof romantic Owlpen Manorin Gloucestershire; superb topiary atLevens Hall in Cumbria; sinister mythsof Blickling Hall in Norfolk and theenchanting Great Garden of Edzell Castlein Scotland, created in 1604 to stimulatethe mind and the senses. Discoverancient deer parks; exquisite collectionsof furniture, national treasures andbreathtaking views, to enjoy season-byseasonand year-round.The cover features Chatsworth inDerbyshire, one of Britain’s most famoushistoric houses and the fastest-growingpaid-for visitor attraction in 2010* withmore than 716,000 visitors. In May 2012Chatsworth featured in a popular threepartBBC1 documentary covering a yearbehind the scenes of the house and estate.

Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

Looking at dwellings around the world, this lift-the-flap book explores what homes can look like, what they’re made of, and who lives there. It includes Bedouin tents, Dutch barges, African mud houses, Moroccan houses with tiled courtyards, glass houses, and more. There is a Thai river house and a brick apartment building to cut out and assemble.

A rollicking tour of the English country home after World War II, when swinging London collided with aristocratic values As the sun set slowly on the British Empire, its mansions fell and rose. Ancient families were reduced to demolishing the parts of their stately homes they could no longer afford, dukes and duchesses desperately clung to their ancestral seats, and a new class of homeowners bought their way into country life. A delicious romp, Noble Ambitions pulls us into these crumbling halls of power, leading us through the juiciest bits of postwar aristocratic history—from Mick Jagger dancing at deb balls to the scandals of Princess Margaret. Capturing the spirit of the age, historian Adrian Tinniswood proves that the country house is not only an iconic symbol, but a lens through which to understand the shifting fortunes of the British elite in an era of monumental social change.