Secret Houses of the Cotswolds

I received a DIGITAL Advance Reader Copy of this book from #NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. From the publisher- A personal tour of twenty of the UK’s most beguiling castles, estates, palaces and manor houses in this much-loved area of western England, including Daylesford, Stanway, Sudeley Castle and Hilles House. Author and architectural historian, Jeremy Musson, and Cotswolds-based photographer Hugo Rittson Thomas, offer privileged access to twenty houses, from castles and manor houses, as well as eighteenth- and nineteenth-century mansions, revealing their history, architecture and interiors, in the company of their devoted owners. In the footsteps of artists and designers including Humphry and George Repton, and Victorian visionary, William Morris, who inspired the arts and crafts movement, and others such as Detmar Blow, Norman Jewson, Clough Williams-Ellis and Oliver Hill, we find a series of fascinating country houses of different sizes and atmospheres, which have shaped the English identity. Each house has their own story, but their distinctive honey-coloured stone walls, set amongst rolling hills, in different ways express the ideals of English life. Most of the houses included here are privately owned and not usually open to the public. In this beautifully produced book, they can now be enjoyed through the eyes of their owners, as well as an experienced architectural historian, and an award-winning photographer.

Wow, what a book! Such beautiful photos of houses I have never heard of but nonetheless less wish that I could live in vs. drooling at. A short read at 72 pages but decidedly worth looking at if you love architecture, the Mitford sisters or Downton Abbey. P.s if you are like me and read the preface and thought “They must mean Norman Jewison vs. Jewson” you would be incorrect.