The House Party: A Short History of Leisure, Pleasure and the Country House Weekend

Description

The House Party explores privilege and leisure from the viewpoint of the guest and the host, showing us what it was really like to spend a weekend with the Jazz Age industrialist, the bibulous belted earl, and the bright young thing. Tinniswood reveals how the great and good partied at mansions such as Knole and Dunham Massey, how Nancy Astor held court at Cliveden, and what a discreet weekend gathering at Winston Churchill's Chartwell might entail. Much like the very best country house party, this glorious book will keep you highly entertained.

Adrian Tinniswood is the author of fourteen books of social and architectural history. A Senior Research Fellow at University of Buckingham and a Visiting Fellow in Heritage and History at Bath Spa University, he worked for and with the National Trust for more than thirty years. In 2013 he was awarded an OBE for services to heritage. His most recent book is Behind the Throne: A Domestic History of the Royal Household. @AdeTinniswood

Praise for The Long Weekend: Delicious, occasionally fantastical, revealing in ways that Downton Abbey never was. It is as if Tinniswood is at the biggest, wildest, most luxuriantly decadent party ever thrown, and he knows everyone. -- Observer A deliciously jaunty and wonderfully knowledgeable book... Tinniswood displays a terrific insider's grasp of gossip ... A meticulous, irresistible story. -- Spectator Elegant, encyclopedic and entertaining ... A confident and skilled historian who understands the mores of his era and wears his learning lightly ... Deserves to be on every costume drama producer's bookshelf.-- Times Ideally sized for a Christmas stocking and for the bedside table of a guest bedroom ... Lots of nuggets to tickle your imagination. -- Times Rife with shareable anecdotes ... A rich eulogy ... It makes a perfect host's gift. -- Financial Times Dainty enough to perch at the top of a Christmas stocking ... Richly anecdotal ... This is a delightful little book, narrated with Tinniswood's habitual panache. -- Literary Review