Three Houses, Many Lives

Three Houses, Many Lives

by Gillian Tindall (Author)

Synopsis

`A major achievement' Ronald Blythe, author of Akenfield A Cotswold vicarage. A former girls' boarding school in Surrey. A Jacobean house now buried in inner London. Three Houses, Many Lives tells the stories not only of the houses themselves but of the lives of the many people who lived in them. From Eugenia Stanhope who sold Lord Chesterfield's scandalous letters, to the autocratic vicar who held the same parish from age 28 to 82, from the just-literate wife of a parish clerk who wrote riddles in his registers, to the cow-keeper who farmed 226 acres in Hornsey till he sold them profitably when the railways came through. Gillian Tindall is a master of miniaturist history, making a particular place, person or situation stand for a much larger picture.

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 336
Publisher: Vintage
Published: 06 Jun 2013

ISBN 10: 0099547031
ISBN 13: 9780099547037
Book Overview: The story of three houses, which represent the changing face of England over four centuries, told through the lives of the people who lived in them.

Media Reviews
With a detective's forensic patience and the narrative ear of a novelist, Tindall unpicks the histories of these houses -- Jane Shilling * Sunday Telegraph *
Gillian Tindall is a tapestry maker. She finds patterns in history - woven from close research into people and places - that no one else would have the persistence and insight to pursue. In this unique and often joyful chronicle, she interweaves the stories of three houses which marked crucial stages in her own life * Independent *
A gentle, yet rigorous examination of the story of three historic buildings...each chapter is an engaging meditation on English history. Thanks to Ms Tindall the stories of all three are better understood than at any point in their history, and all have their place in a perfectly crafted book * Country Life *
Tindall is a forensic researcher [and] has an imaginative historical sensibility and her way of revisiting the past - as if approaching it through the back door - has both subtlety and poignancy. The names of Tindall's inhabitants may sometimes pass in a blur but together they form a roll-call of the predecessors of modern Britain. There are of course thousands of other houses like the three in this touching book...whose stories will never be told -- Michael Prodger * Financial Times *
Gillian Tindall is gifted with an archeological imagination. [She] circles around these houses, bringing out their light, colour and preciousness by employing a method that crosses genres. This book is an education in many things -- Frances Spalding * Literary Review *
Author Bio
Gillian Tindall is a master of miniaturist history, making a handful of people, a few places or a dramatic event stand for the much larger picture. Well-known for the quality of her writing and the meticulous nature of her research, she has written highly praised regional histories of Kentish Town (The Fields Beneath), London's Southbank (The House by the Thames) and the Latin Quarter of Paris (Footprints in Paris), as well as prize-winning novels and history. She lives in London.