'A whirling, waltzing panorama through the last carefree age of British nobility’ New Statesman

In the decades before the First World War, the owners of the nation’s stately homes revelled in a golden age of glory and glamour. This was a time when the ancestral seats of ancient nobility stood side by side with the fabulous palaces of Jewish bankers and Indian princes, when dukes and duchesses mixed with self-made millionaires and society hostesses who had learned to dance in the chorus line.

Adrian Tinniswood opens the doors to the country house during this glittering golden age, when – for the privileged few – life in the country house was the best life of all.

‘Scintillating and brilliant, from a master of the subject’ Gareth Russell

‘Shot through with Tinniswood’s signature sardonic wit and delicious one-liners... The range and scop of his book is breathtaking’ Country Life

Adrian Tinniswood has done it again. His trademark blend of glamour, scholarship and superlative storytelling makes this an enthralling read. -- Lucy Worsley
A wonderful book. There is no one better than Adrian Tinniswood to explore the dichotomy of the great country houses of Britain in the long prewar period, as he shows us ancestral hangings mixed with new telephone exchanges, coronation robes with marble swimming baths that doubled as ballrooms. -- Judith Flanders
Scintillating and brilliant, from a master of the subject. The book is like sitting down to dinner with a fascinating companion - it is deeply learned but also erudite, conversational, and interesting. A beautiful portrait of the Victorian and the Edwardian country house, full of analysis and anecdotes. -- Gareth Russell
Entertaining... One of the most enjoyable aspects of this book is the palpable excitement felt by late 19th-century owners about their houses’ newfangled features * The Times *
Shot through with Prof Tinniswood's signature sardonic wit and delicious one-liners... Anyone who wielded cultural clout is here. The range and scope of his book is breathtaking. -- Timothy Mowl * Country Life *
Entertaining... Illuminating... A pleasure to read -- Jane Ridley * Literary Review *
A whirling, waltzing panorama through the last carefree age of British nobility...[Tinniswood has] a terrific eye for detail and anecdote, all the better to show the country house in its most extreme age of pomp, profligacy and exuberance * New Statesman *
[Tinniswood] welcomes the reader into a world of glamour and mad extravagance… Whichever stately home door he opens, he has an enjoyable story about the residents… what a wonderful bird’s eye view Tinniswood give us * Jewish Chronicle *
Tinniswood covers hundreds of fascinating houses from the famous to the under-sung that we really should know about... The tone is wry; the excesses on display sometimes jaw - dropping. * Times Literary Supplement *
A significant part of social history, led by Adrian Tinniswood. -- Telegraph

Adrian Tinniswood is professorial research fellow in history at the University of Buckingham, adjunct professor of history at Maynooth University and the author of many books on British history, including the Sunday Times bestseller The Long Weekend. He was awarded an OBE for services to heritage, and lives in the west of Ireland.