'This remarkable book traces the whole story of domestic architecture in Britain. The author takes us from the primative huts at the time of the Domesday Book to Thirties suburbs. It paints the grandeur of great country houses, such as Houghton, and chronicles the development of urban squares and terraces. It escorts us unblinkingly into the shaming slums, in which those who toiled for our 19th-century wealth were compelled to live and die; and it ends in a glorious chapter, my own favourite, on bungalows' -- A N Wilson Sunday Telegraph "Unashamedly riddled with class from beginning to end (unavoidably, considering national aspirations and class mobility, both upwards and downwards), the joy is that Lewis has produced a stream of commentary culled from an astonishing range of literary references interwoven with hard facts. Liberally scattered with the rewards of wide-ranging picture research throughout, it's a very handy-sized volume, the text a mere 250 pages." The Spectator 'Philippa Lewis's lively, discursive survey of domestic buildings is a story of attitudes as much as architecture. She ranges widely not just within architectural literature but fiction, poetry, periodicals and plays too...with her breadth of reference and sprightly style she shows how the British psyche can be read through our buildings.' The Guardian 'A celebration of our nation's properties' The Times 'At a time when well designed housing is in high demand and short supply, it's instructive to look to the past and see how the buildings that still underpin the nation's housing stock were shaped.' Wallpaper* 'Admirably forthright.' House & Garden 'An informative and entertaining look at the diversity of Britain's architectural landscape.' Homes and Interiors Scotland 'Absorbing for the urban geographer.' This England