Christopher Simon Sykes

Great Houses of England & Wales (1994) is a coffee-table picture book written by one Hugh Montgomery-Massingberd (say it twice fast), better known as the "father of the modern British obituary", the kind that are irreverent and funny. In addition to obituaries he also wrote bourgeois guides to the British upper-crust with titles like The London Ritz and Heritage of Royal Britain that do exactly what they say on the tin - and so it is with this volume that looks at 25 residences (castles, halls, houses) built between the 13th and 18th centuries.

The pictures are fantastic, by photographer Christopher Simon Sykes. The accompanying text is uneven, sometimes inspired superlatives ("one of the great rooms of the world"), other times boring aristocratic genealogy that numbingly goes on for pages. My favorites include the library in Alnwick Castle (p.18), if I ever win the lottery, this will be the room I re-create, it's my favorite room in the book. Haddon Hall is my favorite home overall, including the incredible Banqueting Hall ca. 1370 (p.22), it has the Romantic look of the Middle Ages. The Baron's Hall (p.40) at Penshurst Place is atmospheric, the kind of place long haired kings carve roasted meat off a spit with a sword. The most curious picture is p.145 showing the Duke of Devonshire asleep on his couch surrounded by a mess of daily papers - no doubt after reading the obituary section.… (meer)