The Long Weekend: Life in the English Country House, 1918-1939 - Hardcover

Adrian Tinniswood is a Senior Research Fellow in History at the University of Buckingham and the author of many books, including The Rainborowes. He lives in Bath, England.

"[Tinniswood] reveals the English country house as a vibrant enterprise, benefitting from new owners, money, and architects bringing contemporary ideas to the art of country living. Informative and entertaining, Tinniswood's meticulous research brings us familiar names, such as the Astors and Edward VIII, while introducing us to lesser-known homeowners who wished to create their own modernist vision."―Library Journal

"Tinniswood elegantly explores the glamorous interwar age of English rural getaways, revealing the not-so-secret affairs of the inhabitants and the reinterpretation of architectural and interior design.... Tinniswood's lovely chronological ode to a past lifestyle brims with tales of the elite's tumultuous weekends and shows how the country house's purpose changed with the times as the old social order came to a close."―Publishers Weekly

"With scholarly aplomb and gossipy relish, historian Tinniswood pulls open the grand front doors of these captivating castles to reveal their innermost workings and outward allure. Now that Downton Abbey is no more, fans of this halcyon, refined world can once again immerse themselves in Britain's quintessential golden era."―Booklist

"Beguiling.... Stuffed with eye-catching detail and apt quotations."―Wall Street Journal

"Tinniswood gives us many entertaining stories about the whimsical extravagances of the new country-housers.... The Long Weekend is a celebration of fantasy and yearning cunningly wrapped up in pragmatism and practicality: about ancient castles with top-plumbing."―Financial Times

"An engaging new account of inter-war country-house life.... Mr. Tinniswood provides rich detail from all corners, uncovering plenty of angst, but also much optimism--until 1939."―The Economist

"Swans in the moat, inglenooks and romantic conservatism...but Adrian Tinniswood's hugely enjoyable, unsnobbish book uncovers another, more subversive, side to the story."―The Guardian (UK)

"[The] book combines a panoramic view of life and architecture in the interwar years with pin-sharp detail and the sort of springy prose that comes with a complete command of the material."―The London Review of Books (UK)

"[A] masterpiece of social history."―The Daily Mail (UK)

"Tinniswood is a learned architectural scholar without a jot of pedantry. He has produced a luscious, summery book, full of amiable anecdotes and photographs of striking interiors, celebrating headstrong optimists who defied the defeatism of the times. The Long Weekend resembles a well-kept hothouse festooned with fruit ripe for the plucking."―Richard Davenport-Hines, Sunday Times (UK)