Romantic Moderns is not a ... guidebook to the period ... this is a book about art and place.
I found this generous and expansive book to be an enlightening supplement to other studies of 1930’s and 1940’s England, complementing them, as it is selective in emphasising the Romantic as avant-garde culture takes a step back from European Modernism, to reconnect with earlier British art.
It therefore provides a wide ranging review of culture in Britain/England from a different perspective. This is not about Auden’s “low dishonest decade”, and knowingly doesn’t concentrate on author’s and artists responses to the political situation, instead highlighting their retreat to Georgian sensibilities or attempts to marry the English landscape tradition with European Modernism.
The book looks at lesser known artists, such as John Piper, Eric Ravilious, Rex Whistler and Cecil Beaton, and refers to the writings of the Sitwells, Evelyn Waugh and Elizabeth Bowen, rather than George Orwell and Christopher Isherwood; Betjeman, as distinguished from Spender and MacNeice.
The book is beautifully written, for example of Henry Green’s novel:
Full of ornament and sensuality, Loving (1945) is, like Brideshead, a butter-book, making up for what is rationed.
As a cultural history, this book is also excellent at highlighting renewed interest in authors and painters of the past, for example in the chapter about village life, the reissues of Gilbert White’s The Natural History of Selbourne (1789) with contemporary illustrations. The chapter on village life also shows the author’s wide reading of the period, when after referencing Waugh, Orwell and Greene, she mentions in passing two villages of crime fiction (Sayer’s Fenchurch St Paul and Christie’s St Mary Mead).
For me, this is an excellent book to fill out my knowledge of the period, but isn’t appropriate as an introduction.

Beautifully produced and illustrated, as you expect from Thames and Hudson, with endpapers replicating a Tree and Cow wallpaper design of Edward Bawden. ( )

A beautifully produced book which is a physical joy to behold and read - lovely paper, well produced colour illustrations and a stunning example of why a Kindle will never replace a book! However, I found the content disappointing - the book was constructed in a scattershot way and it was as if Harris was trying to fit the facts to her theories. I don't think that her hypothesis holds water and it's a shame that in many ways the books doesn't really draw any conclusions. ( )

Beautifully designed book which is also very readable considering the erudite nature of the content. I like the interdisciplinary aspect and found it stimulating and broadening as I knew more about the art and architecture than the literature for example. Has made me want to read Elizabeth Bowen and go back to Virginia Woolf. The excellent bibliography also gives lots of sources for further reading. I look forward to reading her other book (as joint editor) on the seaside. ( )

An overview of the evolution of Modernism in 30s and 40s England, focusing primariliy on the visual arts and literature, but also on other manifestations such as gardening or cookery writing (some of the strongest chapters). Harris is successful at establishing connections between various and sometimes divergent artists. The chapters on literature are good, particularly her study of the country house theme in Du Maurier, Bowen, Green and Waugh. The edition is excellent as well, it is printed on quality creamy coloured paper and fully illustrated. ( )