Clive Aslet
Auteur van Villages of Britain: The Five Hundred Villages That Made the Countryside
Over de Auteur
Clive Aslet is the editor of Country Life and the author of several books, including The American Country House.
Werken van Clive Aslet
Exuberant Catalogue of Dreams: The Americans Who Revived the Country House in Britain (2013) 25 exemplaren
Country Life Magazine 2 exemplaren
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A whistlestop tour through the centuries of building nice homes for the richest folk in Britain. In a way the greatest interest in these homes is through seeing with your own eyes of the beauty that has been created through carving wood, laying marble, or building in stone or brick. For that you can just look through the latest issue of Country Life if you're not able to visit these places yourself. Still a useful primer to help you understand the changing nature of these houses.
It was a decade ago that Neil MacGregor’s A History of the World in 100 Objects launched a publishing trend of books that sought to recount the past through a selection of material objects. In many ways Clive Aslet’s delightful study is a precursor to these works. Though a selection of twenty-one domestic structures that still stand today – from the Norman-era Boothby Pagnell Manor House to a postwar kit house reconstructed to fit 21st century needs – Aslet recounts the evolution of housing in the country and what it reveals about the changes it experienced.
While Aslet’s focus is primarily architectural, he expands his coverage beyond the structures themselves to consider what the form reveals about function. This allows him to present the buildings not just as a reflection of changing needs and tastes, but of what those changes reveal about larger developments taking place in the English society and culture of their times. It’s material and architectural history in its most valuable form, showing how these structures can tell us about the lives people lived and, though them, the broader history of England. As a longtime writer of architectural history Aslet is well-suited to write such a book, yet he wears his knowledge lightly in a work that is never less than enjoyable. While the absence of photographs and floor plans of the houses he profiles is regrettable, supplementing his book with internet searches addresses their absence nicely. Anyone seeking an entertaining overview of English history or to understand how they lived will find Aslet’s book a highly satisfying read, one that demonstrates the value of using English homes as a prism into their past.… (meer)
While Aslet’s focus is primarily architectural, he expands his coverage beyond the structures themselves to consider what the form reveals about function. This allows him to present the buildings not just as a reflection of changing needs and tastes, but of what those changes reveal about larger developments taking place in the English society and culture of their times. It’s material and architectural history in its most valuable form, showing how these structures can tell us about the lives people lived and, though them, the broader history of England. As a longtime writer of architectural history Aslet is well-suited to write such a book, yet he wears his knowledge lightly in a work that is never less than enjoyable. While the absence of photographs and floor plans of the houses he profiles is regrettable, supplementing his book with internet searches addresses their absence nicely. Anyone seeking an entertaining overview of English history or to understand how they lived will find Aslet’s book a highly satisfying read, one that demonstrates the value of using English homes as a prism into their past.… (meer)
An enormous book - 650 odd pages and have been dipping in to it for a quite a while. Finally finished...
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It's a lovely book to have on your coffee table, especially if you enjoy British country houses. Well done.