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Many writers have written about the delights of the former kingdom of the South Saxons, its Downs, villages, countryside, people and their ways but Visitors' Historic Britain - West Sussex_ is the first book to take readers on a tour of discovery of each of the county's historic eras in turn.Starting with prehistoric Sussex, we explore West Sussex from west to east, investigating both little-known and well-visited sites that tell the story of our ancestors' past. We encounter wild warriors, formidable founders of the county, indefatigable industrialists, excitable eccentrics and the lives of Sussex inhabitants and invaders.Sussex is a country celebrated by writers, painters, royalty, artists and the millions who have enjoyed its changing coastline and verdant villages. Visitors' Historic Britain provides a unique series of journeys for those who are inquisitive about this quirky and history-changing part of the Southeast.
An A-Z of eccentrics! 250 true stories of the most original and outrageous people on earth, from bad poets to transsexual evolutionary theorists this encyclopedic guide covering ancient times to the present, includes reams of material never seen in book form before. Famous eccentrics like King Ludwig, Salvador Dalí and Howard Hughes rub shoulders with a host of lesser-known, but equally colorful, characters in these -- mostly -- life-affirming stories. There are unsuspected parallels and connections throughout creating an alternative, off-kilter history of the world.
Jane McCulloch was once dubbed a ‘Renaissance woman’ by the great American soprano Jessye Norman, and her long career as a playwright, theatre and opera director, producer, lyricist, poet and latterly novelist is certainly testament to this. Jane’s has been ‘a life not without incident’ – to quote her husband, the theatre director Toby Robertson. Growing up with fiercely gifted but troubled parents, she found herself with a front-row seat during a golden age of British theatre before forging her own career, running theatre companies both in the UK and abroad and working with the likes of Derek Jacobi and Judi Dench. Inheriting her father’s ability to ‘collect’ celebrities (to the occasional exasperation of her children), Jane proves a born raconteur, describing, amongst other things, how she met Jackie Kennedy Onassis in an accidental Valium haze or managed to charm both Noël Coward and John Betjeman while still a teenager. Beyond the clear-eyed, often moving stories, however, what emerges is an inspirational tale of a woman’s fight for her survival in a very tough profession.
In Six Thousand Years up the Garden Path, a seasoned horticulturalist takes others on a light-hearted and magical journey through the history of gardens. Ian Robertson has spent a lifetime working in the world of plants and design and relies on his experience as an international garden designer to narrate a fascinating history of gardening. Beginning with Sumerians learning to garden between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, Robertson transports others through the Fertile Crescent to western Europe, forward to the British Isles, and onward to the New World all while describing the beauty of the gardens of Andrew Jackson Downing, Wolfgang Oehme, Frederick Law Olmstead, and many others. Included in his story of the foliage and blossoms that surrounded kings, princes, queens, and mistresses, Robertson shares a timeline, glossary, and roadside stopovers that make the journey up the garden path even more delightful. Tailored for the enjoyment of either experienced or novice gardeners immersed in the second fastest growing hobby in America, Robertson provides insights into the people, events, and plants that have vibrantly colored the landscape of the world for thousands of years.
The estate of Goodwood is glorious not only for its famous racecourse and motor racing circuit but also for its magnificent art collection. This superbly illustrated book reveals the treasures of Goodwood. Curator Rosemary Baird tells the story of the Dukes of Richmond, from the birth of the 1st Duke (son of Louise de Kéroualle and Charles II), who purchased Goodwood. She describes events such as the Duchess of Richmond's famous ball, from which officers were called to fight in the Battle of Waterloo ('some arrived at the field of battle in silk stockings and dancing shoes') and how, with wealth largely derived from a tax on coal leaving Newcastle, the Richmond family developed Goodwood and acquired works of art to adorn it. In particular the book focuses on the great 18th-century collections of the 2nd and 3rd Dukes. The 2nd Duke was a leading exponent of the Palladian movement, building Richmond House on the banks of the Thames at Whitehall as well as an extension to Goodwood. He commissioned from Canaletto two views of the Thames, which were painted from Richmond House. The 3rd Duke patronized some of the greatest painters and architects of the day – at the age of 24 he gave the unknown George Stubbs his first commission – and collected French furniture, tapestries and porcelain.
If this were a novel, the tales of astounding wealth, sexual perversion, murder, munificence, rape, insanity, brutality, slavery, religious mania, selfishness, snobbery, charity, suicide, generosity, theft, madness, wickedness, failure and eccentricity which unfold in these pages would be too concentrated to allow for the willing suspension of disbelief. All these sins and virtues, and more, are displayed by the characters in this book, some exhibiting several of them simultaneously. Folly builders were not as we are. They never built what we now call follies. They built for beauty, utility, improvement; it is only we, struggling after them with our imperfect understanding, who dismiss their prodigious constructions as follies. Follies can be found around the world, but England is their spiritual home. Having written the definitive books on follies in Great Britain, Benelux and the USA, Headley & Meulenkamp have turned their attention to the folly builders themselves, people so blinded by fashion or driven by some nameless ideology that they expended great fortunes on making their point in brick, stone and flint. Most follies are simply misunderstood buildings, and this book studies the motives, characters, decisions and delusions of their builders. If there was madness in their building, fortunately there was no method in it.