{"product_id":"lives-of-houses-9780691193663","title":"Lives of Houses","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA group of notable writers - including UK poet laureate Simon Armitage, Julian Barnes, Margaret MacMillan, and Jenny Uglow - celebrate our fascination with the houses of famous literary figures, artists, composers, and politicians of the past.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWhat can a house tell us about the person who lives there? Do we shape the buildings we live in, or are we formed by the places we call home? And why are we especially fascinated by the houses of the famous and often long dead? In \u003cem\u003eLives of Houses\u003c\/em\u003e, a group of notable biographers, historians, critics, and poets explores these questions and more through fascinating essays on the houses of great writers, artists, composers, and politicians of the past.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eEditors Kate Kennedy and Hermione Lee are joined by wide-ranging contributors, including Simon Armitage, Julian Barnes, David Cannadine, Roy Foster, Alexandra Harris, Daisy Hay, Margaret MacMillan, Alexander Masters, and Jenny Uglow. We encounter W. H. Auden, living in joyful squalor in New York's St. Mark's Place, and W. B. Yeats in his flood-prone tower in the windswept West of Ireland. We meet Benjamin Disraeli, struggling to keep up appearances, and track the lost houses of Virginia Woolf and Elizabeth Bowen. We visit Benjamin Britten in Aldeburgh, England, and Jean Sibelius at Ainola, Finland. But \u003cem\u003eLives of Houses\u003c\/em\u003e also considers those who are unhoused, unwilling or unable to establish a home—from the bewildered poet John Clare wandering the byways of England to the exiled Zimbabwean writer Dambudzo Marechera living on the streets of London.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWith more than forty illustrations, \u003cem\u003eLives of Houses\u003c\/em\u003e illuminates what houses mean to us and how we use them to connect to and think about the past. The result is a fresh and engaging look at house and home.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eFeaturing:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003eAlexandra Harris on moving house\u003c\/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003eSusan Walker on Morocco's ancient Roman House of Venus\u003c\/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003eHermione Lee on biographical quests for writers' houses\u003c\/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003eMargaret Macmillan on her mother's Toronto house\u003c\/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003eA poem by Maura Dooley, 'Visiting Orchard House, Concord, Massachusetts'—the house in which Louisa May Alcott wrote and set her novel \u003cem\u003eLittle Women\u003c\/em\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003eFelicity James on William and Dorothy Wordsworth's Dove Cottage\u003c\/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003eRobert Douglas-Fairhurst at home with Tennyson\u003c\/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003eDavid Cannadine on Winston Churchill's dream house, Chartwell\u003c\/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003eJenny Uglow on Edward Lear at San Remo's Villa Emily\u003c\/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003eLucy Walker on Benjamin Britten at Aldeburgh, England\u003c\/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003eSeamus Perry on W. H. Auden at 77 St. Mark's Place, New York City\u003c\/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003eRebecca Bullard on Samuel Johnson's houses\u003c\/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003eA poem by Simon Armitage, 'The Manor'\u003c\/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003eDaisy Hay at home with the Disraelis\u003c\/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003eLaura Marcus on H. G. Wells at Uppark\u003c\/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003eAlexander Masters on the fear of houses\u003c\/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003eElleke Boehmer on sites associated with Zimbabwean writer Dambudzo Marechera\u003c\/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003eKate Kennedy on the mental asylums where World War I poet Ivor Gurney spent the last years of his life\u003c\/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003eA poem by Bernard O'Donoghue, 'Safe Houses'\u003c\/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003eRoy Foster on W. B. Yeats and Thoor Ballylee\u003c\/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003eSandra Mayer on W. H. Auden's Austrian home\u003c\/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003eGillian Darley on John Soane and the autobiography of houses\u003c\/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003eJulian Barnes on Sibelius and Ainola\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e'An anthology with a concept both interesting in itself and unintentionally topical.' - Carol Rumens, \u003cem\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003e'\u003c\/em\u003eA thoughtful, meticulously edited collection of essays.' - Lara Feigel, \u003cem\u003eThe Spectator\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eLives of Houses\u003c\/em\u003e is an enjoyable and at times outstanding gathering of idiosyncratic voices.' - Kevin Jackson, \u003cem\u003eLiterary Review\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"NewSouth Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46844439658732,"sku":"9780691193663","price":64.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/1923773482434.jpg?v=1758842497","url":"https:\/\/bookhero.co.nz\/products\/lives-of-houses-9780691193663","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}