PERHAPS A GIFT VOUCHER FOR MUM?: MOTHER'S DAY
Gareth Williams is a curator at the British Museum with responsibility for early medieval coins and Viking antiquities. His research focuses on the Anglo-Saxon and Viking periods, and spans archaeology, history, and numismatics.
A masterpiece, a magnum opus, a heavyweight book with the calibre of an artillery shell... -- Toby Neal * Shropshire Star * Mr Williams offers an informed and authoritative outline of the history of each building and its owners to the present day. [...] Quite as remarkable as the text, however, is the accompanying body of illustrations, including prints, paintings and photographs both old and contemporary. * Country Life * Extraordinary. * Shropshire Parks and Gardens Trust * Gareth Williams's massive volume on those houses is long-awaited and does not disappoint in any respect. * The Georgian Group * Three hundred and forty seven houses are documented in total. Williams proceeds in alphabetical order. Each entry is illustrated. The author packs so much into each entry - reaching right back to the origins of houses and their families, and working up the present. While packing in lots of historical and architectural detail, the writing does not become dense or stodgy. It retains a lightness as we trip through a property's timeline. In order to write at depth in such an engaging manner, you have to know your subject inside out - and Williams' scholarship is evident. Each entry is a joy to read. * The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings *
