Osbert Lancaster's Cartoons, Columns and Curlicues

Including Pillar to Post, Homes Sweet Homes and Drayneflete Revealed

By: Osbert Lancaster

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Hardcover | 21 October 2015

At a Glance

Hardcover
304 Pages

Age
0

Dimensions(cm)
24 x 18.5 x 4.5

Hardcover

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A beautiful boxed-set containing three long out-of-print and influential books by the great British humorist, Sir Osbert Lancaster

Pillar to Post, the story of architecture through the ages, takes us in words and pictures from the Egypt of the pyramids to Twentieth Century Functional (by way of Stockbroker's Tudor and By-Pass Variegated). First published in 1938, it was described by Gavin Stamp as "One of the most influential books on architecture ever published." Homes Sweet Homes, first published in 1939, is a history of architectural interiors, and a sequel to Pillar to Post. It gives full scope to Lancaster's genius for showing people in their settings: the carousing Normans in the communal hall; the cocktail-drinking couple in Curzon Street Baroque; the First Russian Ballet lady outstretched on her day bed; the Cultured Cottage couple in their Arts & Crafts Interior. First published in 1949, Drayneflete Revealed traces the development of one particularly typical (invented) English town. Starting from its muddy Saxon origins-the Fleet River is the ancient river that runs in sewers under the City of London-it follows the changing fortunes of the architectural development from village to small city and the foibles and fashions of the inhabitants.

Industry Reviews

"Pillar to Post and Homes Sweet Homes, the first two of these reprinted volumes, were described by Ernst Gombrich as comprising 'the best textbooks of architecture ever published'....The books are as Gombrich described them, an introductory course of laconic brilliance."

-- Rosemary Hill * London Review of Books *

"Reprinted in a delightful three-volume boxed set....a very happy Christmas present for anyone who doesn't yet possess these corkers"

* Evening Standard *

"Osbert Lancaster's humorous and influential books on British architecture and interior design reissued by Pimpernel Press. Although his books are period pieces we can learn lessons from them still. We owe Osbert Lancaster a lot."

* Financial Times *

"Lancaster's delightfully sardonic spoof architectural histories are handsomely republished by the Pimpernel Press."

* Spectator *

"First order of merit goes to the Pimpernel Press, which has saved from obscurity three of the cartoonist Osbert Lancaster's brilliant satires. These erudite spoofs are collected in a handsome box."

* Telegraph *

"a welcome retort to po-faced modern architectural writing and as sharp as vinaigrette. Long overdue."

-- Philippa Stockley * Evening Standard Books of the Year 2015 *

"Osbert Lancaster is now forgotten or ignored as most architectural commentary adopts noisy radical 'positions'. Three facsimile volumes of his gentle, witty, erudite illustrated commentaries have been re-issued in a slip-case as Cartoons, Columns and Curlicues (Pimpernel Press, GBP40).Pillar to Post (1938), Homes Sweet Homes (1939), and Drayneflete Revealed (1948) reveal an engaged, eclectic, humorous mind a world away from the tantrums of Zaha or the annoying angles of Koolhaas. Delicious."

-- Stephen Bayley * Spectator Books of the Year 2015 *

"Pillar to Post ... now handsomely reissued with two other comic masterpieces of architectural satire ... brilliantly witty draughtsmanship."

* World of Interiors *

"The set occupies less space than the average architectural monograph, but contains pretty much everything you need to know about architecture."

* RIBA Journal *

"A welcome chance to reappraise the genius of Osbert Lancaster in a boxed set of his three brilliant illustrated works of social and architectural satire. Lancaster's comic panagyric to human achievement and folly in equal measure is an inspiring work that balances wit with intense social acuity."

* Journal of the London Society *

'Masterpieces of comic erudition....If you don't already know these books, you have a treat awaiting you. They sum up our architectural inheritance in a hugely entertaining and quite inimitable way.'

-- Fiona MacCarthy

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