A Small Place in Italy by Eric Newby

A Small Place in Italy by Eric Newby lands on the shelves of my shop.

HarperCollins, 1994, Hardback in dust wrapper.

From the cover: In 1967, Eric Newby and his wife Wanda fulfilled a long-cherished ambition when they acquired I Castagni (otherwise The Chestnuts), a small and excessively ruined farmhouse in the foothills of the Apuan Alps on the borders of Liguria and northern Tuscany. They were the first foreigners to live in the area, and twenty-five years later they remained the only ones.

The house came with a tileless roof, a long-abandoned septic tank and a lavatory hidden in a dense plantation of canes in the open air. It also contained a wealth of indigenous wildlife: a large colony of cockroaches; a hornets nest; an adder which shed its skin every year on a beam in the owners bedroom; predatory mice the size of small cats who used red flannel from Eric Newbys favourite shirts to line their offsprings nests; and, not least, a sitting tenant, Attilio a minute, eccentric and very ancient man who had once built an aeroplane in which he had launched himself from a high place and crashed, hurting himself badly.

In this affectionate, humorous, often hilarious book, Eric Newby recounts how he and Wanda, who met in Italy in 1943 after he escaped from a POW camp, pulled I Castagni from the brink of collapse with the aid of the local esperti (skilled workmen). It describes their long-enduring friendship with the neighbouring contadini, who welcomed them whether eating, drinking, harvesting grapes and olives, or hunting for fungus and wild asparagus from the moment they arrived.

In Love and War in the Apennines, Eric Newby described the start of his love affair with Italy; in A Small Place in Italy, with his inimitable wry humour and eye for the quirks and oddities of human nature, he chronicles how it grew to maturity.

Good+ in Good+ Dust Wrapper. A little rubbing to the edges of the dust wrapper. Leans. Top edge of the text block spotted. Text complete, clean and tight but a little age-tanned.

Blue boards with Gilt titling to the Spine. 211 pages. 9½” x 6¼”.

Of course, if you don’t like this one there are plenty more available here!

The Victorian Country House Revised & Englarged Edition by Mark Girouard

The Victorian Country House Revised & Englarged Edition by Mark Girouard lands on the shelves of my shop.

Yale University Press, 1979, Hardback in dust wrapper.

Jacket illustration: From the cover of a book commemorating the visit of Edward, Prince of Wales, and Princess Alexandra to Cragside in August 1884. Illustrated by way of: Black & White Photographs; Facsimiles; Colour Photographs; Black & White Drawings; Illustrated endpapers and blanks; Plans;

From the cover: The great wealth of nineteenth-century Britain led to an astonishing boom in the building of country houses. These houses were generally of an enormous size and complexity, and exhibited a remarkable variety of design. Mark Girouard, author of Life in the English Country House, displays his vast knowledge and critical insight in a wide-ranging approach to this fascinating subject. He deals not only with the houses themselves but also with the architects involved, the social and economic conditions that made such massive structures possible, the cumbersome domestic organization that dictated their design, and the ingenious technological developments in plumbing, heating and construction that enhanced the comfort of country living.

The book begins with a perceptive, analytic essay in which the author describes the social climate of the Victorian era and its influence on the architecture. From this perspective, he presents an in-depth look at thirty individual houses great establishments of the aristocracy, Gothic and mediaevalist follies, grandiose fantasies of the industrial rich, and ruins of houses too eccentric to survive each in a different way epitomizing the prosperity, individuality and self-assurance of the age. The book concludes with a catalogue of all the most important houses as well as biographical notes on the major architects.

Originally published in 1971, this book has become established as a classic study of Victorian architecture. For this new edition, the author has substantially revised the text and written two new chapters. The original illustrations are augmented by thirty-three new colour plates.

Writing with his distinctive blend of scholarship, fluency and wit, Mark Girouard has achieved a lucid and engrossing mixture of architectural and social history, of interest and importance not only to serious scholars but to anyone who is curious about the attitudes and way of life of a past generation.

Very Good in Very Good Dust Wrapper. A little rubbing to the edges of the dust wrapper. Price Clipped. Previous owners’ inscription to the head of the title page. Pages very gently age-tanned.

Red boards with Gilt titling to the Spine. 467 pages. Index. 10¼” x 8″.

Of course, if you don’t like this one there are plenty more available here!

Britain’s History from the Air by Jane Struthers

Britain’s History from the Air by Jane Struthers lands on the shelves of my shop.

Ebury Press, 1994, Hardback in dust wrapper.

Jacket illustration: Dover Castle. Illustrated by way of: Black & White Photographs; Colour Photographs;

From the cover: Here is Britain as never seen before, a birds-eye view of the historic buildings and landscapes which represent our heritage. The castles, palaces, cathedrals and rural landscapes, both legendary and actual, have been captured on film by Jason Hawkes, a photographer of exceptional talent who has recorded each place in stunning compositions. The photographs are captioned by Jane Struthers, supplying fascinating details on the significance of the places in British history.

The lives of kings and queens from ancient times to the present are bound up with the places significant in their lives. In Britains History from the Air many of these are portrayed. The royal castles and palaces Windsor, Caernarfon, Buckingham Palace, Balmoral are depicted in all their architectural grandeur and dignity. The great cathedrals and churches St Pauls, Westminster Abbey, Canterbury and the rest are included, in addition to stately homes, fortifications, public buildings, towns, battlefields and other landscapes, all of which have played their part in Britains history.

With 100 full-colour photographs and many additional historic and documentary illustrations, Britains History from the Air offers a visual feast and an absorbing and original view of our island story.

Very Good in Very Good Dust Wrapper. Price Clipped. Gently bruised at the head of the spine and the top corners of the boards with commensurate wear to the dust wrapper. Text complete, clean and tight.

Matching Pictorial boards. 144 pages. Index. 10¾” x 11¾”.

Of course, if you don’t like this one there are plenty more available here!