The Long Weekend

£14.99

There is nothing quite as beautiful as an English country house in summer. And there has never been a summer quite like that Indian summer between the two world wars, a period of gentle decline in which the sun set slowly on the British Empire and the shadows lengthened on the lawns of a thousand stately homes. Real life in the country house during the 1920s and 1930s was not always so sunny. By turns opulent and ordinary, noble and vicious, its shadows were darker. In ‘The Long Weekend’, Adrian Tinniswood uncovers the truth about a world half-forgotten, draped in myth and hidden behind stiff upper lips and film-star smiles.

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Description

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

Venture behind closed doors to uncover the secrets of life in the interwar country house…

During the 1920s and 1930s, as the sun set slowly on the British Empire, England’s stately homes concealed worlds both opulent and ordinary, noble and viscious. This was a realm draped in myth, hidden behind stiff upper lips and film-star smiles.

Drawing on hundreds of memoirs, on unpublished letters and diaries, on the eye-witness testimonies of belted earls, unhappy heiresses and bullying butlers, The Long Weekend reveals how the image of the country house was carefully protected by its occupants above and below stairs, and how the reality was so much more interesting than the dream.

‘A perfect piece of escapism’ Guardian

‘A delicious cocktail of a book’ Country Life

‘Elegant, encyclopaedic and entertaining’ The Times

Read a sample here

Additional information

Weight 0.36 kg
Dimensions 19.7 × 13 × 2.9 cm
Author

Publisher

Imprint

Cover

Paperback

Pages

416

Language

English

Edition
Dewey

941.083 (edition:23)

Readership

General – Trade / Code: K