The Long Weekend: Life in the English Country House 1918-1939
Adrian Tinniswood
Jonathan Cape
£25
ISBN: 9780224099455
This book is a must read and must have for anyone interested in social history and the English Country House of the period between the two World Wars. Adrian Tinniswood has delved into various memoirs, letters and diaries to portray a time of change for both owners and servants and to give a thoroughly detailed account of these fascinating times and the dramatis personae involved.
The cover illustration of Mr and Mrs Robert Tritton at Godmersham by Rex Whistler to me aptly sums up the country house of the period. Everything looks rather idyllic but there is a sense of brittleness and theatricality hinting at the non-permanence of the idyll which was soon to be changed for a second time within fifty years by the Second World War.
Tim Forrest's E & A 