Discover Top Posts Tagged with #john summerson

Paper Shadows 🏺🖼️

Frame study from Contrasts: The Buildings of England (1968).

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Georgian London by John Summerson with a cover by Herbert Spencer.

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8 for the bookish asks?

8. Who's an author you discovered recently and like?

ooo, probably John Summerson. And yes, I'm surprised too because I am generally ambivalent towards non-fiction, but I bought his version of The Microcosm of London (1943) at a charity shop recently and I really really like it. As someone who knows very little about architecture, he explains it all very clearly while still keeping it at a high level of detail. But he also takes the time to provide the context of the politics and people of the early 1800s depicted on the panels, which makes my history-nerd heart very happy. Definitely want to get my hands on some of his later works now.

(Also, this is more of a meta-comment but you can really feel the sadness in his words when he ends the history of a building with 'burned in an air raid' and the anxiety of whether any of these buildings will survive into the future, making the book feel that much more interesting and real).

#ask game #books #john summerson #microcosm of london #english history