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INSIDER | BOOKS

Words pictures

What to read: the latest books chosen by ROSE DAHLSEN

THE COUNTRY HOUSE IDEAL: RECENT WORK DESIGN: THE DEFINITIVE VISUAL HISTORY
BY ADAM ARCHITECTURE Jeremy Musson (Merrell, £40) (Dorling Kindersley, £25)
This handsomely illustrated volume is essentially a survey of the country This book claims to offer an exhaustive history of its subject, but it is neces-
houses designed by the five architects who make up the Winchester-based sarily selective. That said, it is extraordinarily wide-ranging, encompassing
practice ADAM Architecture. The practice is named after its founder, a all areas of design – including industrial and product design – from 1850 to
present-day Robert Adam, not to be confused with the famous eighteenth- the present. There are potted biographies of many key figures, from Antoni
century architect. The book is divided into four main chapters according Gaudí to Jonathan Ive, Apple’s chief design officer, and influential brands,
to style, with four or five houses in each. As Jeremy Musson explains, the from Liberty to Muji. The book also flirts with fashion, with sub-sections on
architects have different personalities, reflected in the wide range of styles. jewellery, as well as architecture. So inclusive is this tome that it avoids
All of these are traditional and predominantly classical, with the exceptions being purist and is sometimes even populist, especially when tracing a
of a house in Lutyens-inspired Arts single product type’s evolution.
and Crafts style and a charming One section on timepieces takes
specimen in the romantic cottage in a fussy 1877 gilt carriage clock
orné idiom. What the houses have and a funky Forties wall clock by
in common is their careful atten- George Nelson. The book’s chron-
tion to detail and proportion, their ology is occasionally flawed
response to the specific needs of – oddly, a biography of Frank Lloyd
each client and their excellent Wright comes after one of the
craftsmanship. Some will no doubt younger architect and designer
dismiss them as mere pastiche – a Charlotte Perriand – yet this
much misused word – but they minor quibble is redeemed by the
quite clearly fulfil the requirements pithy yet informative text and
of the people who commission wealth of gorgeously punchy
them. Roger White colour images. Dominic Lutyens

THE WHITE ROAD: GREAT GARDENS
A PILGRIMAGE OF SORTS OF LONDON
Edmund de Waal Victoria Summerley
(Chatto & Windus, £20) (Frances Lincoln, £30)
Following the success of The Hare This enchanting book unites 30
with Amber Eyes, Edmund de Waal eminent gardens in the capital: 17
has embarked on another quest, are regularly open to the public
this time in pursuit of the origins and 13 are privately owned. Split
of his own art – making porcelain. into five thematic chapters,
Naturally, it takes him to China, Victoria Summerley’s entries
where the porcelain manufacturing – rich in historical depth and
capital of Jingdezhen has been in poetical phrasing – are partnered
business for nearly 2,000 years, with pictures by photographers
and to Meissen, where the first true Marianne Majerus and Hugh
European porcelain was produced Rittson Thomas. They cover gardens from the US ambassador’s garden at
in 1708. Less familiar territory is Winfield House in Regent’s Park, which welcomes presidential helicopters
covered on trips to Plymouth, on the lawn, to the ‘crumbling grandeur’ effect of Tim Knox and Todd
where William Cookworthy created Longstaffe-Gowan’s high-walled haven at Malplaquet House in Mile End. The
a new porcelain clay body in the reader is also guided through the grounds of Eltham Palace in Greenwich,
1760s; to South Carolina in search of Cherokee clay; and to Dachau concen- where Henry VIII spent his young years, a floating oasis of garden barges in
tration camp where, from 1941 to 1945, prisoners churned out figurines of Bermondsey that evoke a vibrant bohemian spirit, and the ‘unapologetically
Hitler Youth and SS standard-bearers in the Allach porcelain factory. Along pretty’ Old Vicarage in Petersham. Victoria recounts charming anecdotes
the way, there are the valuable insights of a skilled potter into ingredients, about the gardens, their owners and the workings of the designers. A use-
degrees of whiteness and the use of pigments, kilns and firing processes. ful section at the end features visiting information and a list of other notable
But in its combination of streams of consciousness, gobbets of document gardens and events across London. These urban gardens certainly are
and historical empathy, I found the text tiresomely mannered. Celina Fox great; they are characterful, quirky and quite wondrous, too. RD

62 NOVEMBER 2015 HOUSEANDGARDEN.CO.UK