A Lust For Window Sills

A Lover's Guide to British Buildings from Portcullis to Pebble Dash

By: Harry Mount

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Paperback | 17 March 2011 | Edition Number 1

At a Glance

Paperback
384 Pages

Age
18+

Dimensions(cm)
2.4 x 13 x 19.6

Paperback

$38.99

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Ever wondered why the floors in terraced houses are different heights? Or what a landscape looked like before it was built on? And did you know you can date a building by its window sills? In A Lust for Window Sills, Harry Mount takes us on an engrossing tour of the UK's architecture, exploring the quirks, foibles, and tiny details that make their buildings unique, and revealing the fascinating stories and anecdotes behind them along the way. We see every historic building style in Britain in one hour's walk across London, from the Norman apse of St. Bartholomew's in Smithfield—where Hugh Grant backs out of marrying Duckface in Four Weddings and a Funeral—to the National Gallery's Sainsbury Wing, via Gothic in Holborn, Sir. Christopher Wren in the City, and the Knights Templar at Temple. A trip up the M4 reveals some of their greatest country houses, while a visit to Stonehenge, Avebury, and Silbury Hill is a journey back to the Bronze Age. This book is a lively, entertaining, and affectionate portrait of a country's history and the Britain of today.

Industry Reviews

** 'Marvellous . . . this book is going to do for architectural history what Lynne Truss's EATS, SHOOTS AND LEAVES did for punctuation . . . Erudite, playful, witty and inspiring, it is destined to transform the way we look at old buildings . . . Barely a sentence passes without some fascinating and often incredibly useful titbit revealing itself . . . . You'll wonder how you lived without it - LITERARY REVIEW

** 'brilliant, offbeat celebration . . . Harry Mount offers an uncluttered survey of British architectural history and clear, memorable explanations. It is packed with intelligent tips . . . Mounts is an irreverent entertaining guide - Thomas Marks, DAILY - ** 'I have been endeavouring to console myself with Harry Mount's rather brilliant book A LUST FOR WINDOW SILLS, reckoning that an ability to distingu

Hannah Betts, INDEPENDENT - ** 'Mr Mount has produced an engaging text, amusingly written with a rich leaven of anecdote. There is too, a wealth of literary quotation and referen

John Goodhall, COUNTRY Life - ** 'It's a stroll, a jaunt, possibly a meander, taking the reader through all the architectural periods, around most building types and down numerous

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