NOBLE AMBITIONS: RISE AND FALL OF THE POST WAR COUNTRY HOUSE

By 1945, Britain's stately homes were beginning to totter under rising taxes and a growing sense that they had no place in modern society. Many were demolished; others learned to adapt. This is a rollicking tour of these crumbling halls of power, as a rakish, raffish, aristocratic Swinging London collided with traditional rural values. Capturing the spirit of the age, Adrian Tinniswood proves that the country house is a lens through which to understand the shifting fortunes of Britain in an era of monumental social change.