'This is a truly magnificent book. The wonderful text tells the story of the architects, owners and occupants, restoration, adaptation and change. And the photographs are exceptional.' Good Book Guide 'A treasure ... best of all are the authors personal asides on builders and those who inspired them' Economist 'Stourton writes elegantly and absorbingly about both architects and owners' -- Marcus Binney The Times 'A fascinating and witty tour of some of London's most elegant (and most secret) houses and the people who built them' Economist 'the deft weaving of architectural, social and contemporary history will reveal unexpected pleasures' Art Quarterly 'Writing in a deceptively simple style, Stourton concentrates on architects and artists, on awners and occupants. Idiosyncratic and amusing, he makes you see everything in a new light' The Tablet 'This magnificent book, with illustrations of breathtaking beauty specially taken by Fritz von der Schulenburg, is the fullest account ever written of its absorbing subject. It will come as a revelation, even to those who think they are familiar with London ... The book is ... not only about architecture, but about people, whose social, artistic and political ambitions, and manner of living, are vividly brought to life ... We are familiar with the depressing list of great houses demolished in the 20th century, from Devonshire House to Londonderry House, but this book can surely cheer us up during the recession with its visions of surviving splendour.' -- David Watkin Country Life 'This sumptuously illustrated volume...extends its reach both sociologically and chronologically... James Stourton's text is very readable, deftly mingling the architectural history and the social, and on the whole reliable, and it is completemented by Fritz von der Schulenburg's specially taken photographs' Historic House 'This lavishly illustrated compendium suggest that the age of elegance endures' Mail on Sunday 'The true fascination resides in the less well-known interiors' RA Magazine