{"title":"Books by Adrian Tinniswood","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9781529111439","title":"Noble Ambitions","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eFrom the bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eThe Long Weekend\u003c\/i\u003e: a wild, sad and sometimes hilarious tour of the English country house after the Second World War, when Swinging London collided with aristocratic values.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Preposterously entertaining' \u003ci\u003eObserver\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Brilliant' \u003ci\u003eDaily Telegraph\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Rollicking' \u003ci\u003eSunday Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs the sun set slowly on the British Empire in the years after the Second World War, the nation's stately homes were in crisis. Tottering under the weight of rising taxes and a growing sense that they had no place in twentieth-century Britain, hundreds of ancestral piles were dismantled and demolished.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eYet - perhaps surprisingly - many of these great houses survived, as dukes and duchesses clung desperately to their ancestral seats and tenants' balls gave way to rock concerts, safari parks and day trippers. From the Rolling Stones rocking Longleat to Christine Keeler rocking Cliveden, \u003ci\u003eNoble Ambitions\u003c\/i\u003e takes us on a lively tour of these crumbling halls of power.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e* A \u003ci\u003eDaily Telegraph\u003c\/i\u003e Book of the Year *\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e* Longlisted for the William MB Berger Prize for British Art History *\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43204652499122,"sku":"9781529111439","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781529111439_a9b28da0-fc5e-4799-b638-e92ab43ff1d0.jpg?v=1786022586"},{"product_id":"9780099523864","title":"Pirates Of Barbary","description":"\u003cp\u003eFrom the coast of Southern Europe to Morocco and the Ottoman states of Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli, Christian and Muslim seafarers met in bustling ports to swap religions, to battle and to trade goods and sales - raiding as far as Ireland and Iceland in search of their human currency.Studying the origins of these men, their culture and practices, Adrian Tinniswood expertly recreates the twilight world of the corsairs and uncovers a truly remarkable clash of civilisations \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDrawing on a wealth of material, from furious royal proclamations to the private letters of pirates and their victims, as well as recent Islamic accounts, \u003ci\u003ePirates of Barbary\u003c\/i\u003e provides a new perspectives of the corsairs and a fascinating insight into what it meant to sacrifice all you have for a life so violent, so uncertain and so alien that it sets you apart from the rest of mankind.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56223255757173,"sku":"9780099523864","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780099523864_9869f6e6-ef7b-4186-9dee-cb4feecf117d.jpg?v=1786011100"},{"product_id":"9780099592853","title":"The Long Weekend","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e'A masterpiece of social history' \u003ci\u003eDaily Mail\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThere is nothing quite as beautiful as an English country house in summer. And there has never been a summer quite like that Indian summer between the two world wars, a period of gentle decline in which the sun set slowly on the British Empire and the shadows lengthened on the lawns of a thousand stately homes. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eReal life in the country house during the 1920s and 1930s was not always so sunny.  By turns opulent and ordinary, noble and vicious, its shadows were darker. In \u003ci\u003eThe Long Weekend\u003c\/i\u003e, Adrian Tinniswood uncovers the truth about a world half-forgotten, draped in myth and hidden behind stiff upper lips and film-star smiles. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDrawing on hundreds of memoirs, on unpublished letters and diaries, on the eye-witness testimonies of belted earls and unhappy heiresses and bullying butlers, \u003ci\u003eThe Long Weekend\u003c\/i\u003e gives a voice to the people who inhabited this world and shows how the image of the country house was carefully protected by its occupants above and below stairs, and how the reality was so much more interesting than the dream.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56223763267957,"sku":"9780099592853","price":20.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780099592853_632f80a3-4913-46f0-a02b-6b5668cde31a.jpg?v=1786011594"},{"product_id":"9781910702826","title":"Behind the Throne","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eBehind the Throne is, above all, a history of family life.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThey ate, entertained their friends and worried about money. \u003cb\u003eHenry VIII\u003c\/b\u003e kept tripping over his dogs. \u003cb\u003eGeorge II\u003c\/b\u003e threw his son out of the house. \u003cb\u003eJames I\u003c\/b\u003e had to cut back on the drink bills.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe great difference is that royal families had more help with their lives than most.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCharles I\u003c\/b\u003e maintained a household of 2,000. \u003cb\u003eVictoria's \u003c\/b\u003emedical establishment alone consisted of thirty doctors, three dentists and a chiropodist. Even today,\u003cb\u003e Elizabeth II\u003c\/b\u003e keeps a full-time staff of 1,200. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA royal household was a community, a vast machine. Everyone, from\u003cb\u003e James I's Master of the Horse\u003c\/b\u003e down to \u003cb\u003eWilliam IV's Assistant Table Decker\u003c\/b\u003e, was there to smooth the sovereign's path through life while simultaneously confirming their status.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHere, Adrian Tinniswood uncovers the reality of five centuries of life at the English court, taking you on a remarkable journey, exploring life as it was lived by clerks and courtiers and clowns and crowned heads. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eBehind the Throne\u003c\/i\u003e is a true domestic history of the royal household, a reconstruction of life behind the throne. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'The most interesting and informative book on British royalty for many years' \u003ci\u003eLiterary Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56308502757749,"sku":"9781910702826","price":25.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781910702826.jpg?v=1786029005"},{"product_id":"9780712673648","title":"His Invention So Fertile","description":"\u003cp\u003eChristopher Wren (1632-1723) was the greatest architect Britain has ever known.  But he was more than that.  A founder of the Royal Society, he mapped the moon and the stars, investigated the problem of longitude and the rings of Saturn, and carried out groundbreaking experiments into the circulation of the blood.  His observations on comets, meteorology and muscular action made vital contributions to the developing ideas of Newton, Halley and Boyle. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eHis Invention So Fertile\u003c\/i\u003e presents the first complete picture of this towering genius: the Surveyor-General of the King's Works, running the nation's biggest architectural office and wrestling with corruption and interference; the pioneering anatomist; the mathematician, devising new navigational instruments and lecturing on planetary motion. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt also shows us the man behind the legend.  Wren was married and widowed twice, he fathered a mentally handicapped child, quarrelled with his colleagues and fell foul of his employers.  He scrambled over building sites and went to the theatre and drank in coffee-houses. The book explores what it was like to be at Oxford during the Commonwealth, as a generation struggled to make sense of a society in chaos; it recreates the tensions which tore apart the court of James II; it brings to life the petty jealousies that formed an integral part of both the building world and scientific milieu of the Royal Society. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAbove all, \u003ci\u003eHis Invention So Fertile\u003c\/i\u003e makes clear to the general reader and the art historian just why Wren remains a cultural icon - both a creation and a creator of the world he lived in.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56311864426869,"sku":"9780712673648","price":30.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780712673648_ceb0a2d1-b430-4a79-bb33-f4390cb35dc3.jpg?v=1786015112"},{"product_id":"9781785516078","title":"The Houses of Guinness","description":"\u003cb\u003eAn exploration of the Guinness family through their houses, published to coincide with the new Netflix series \u003ci\u003eHouse of Guinness\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBest-selling author Adrian Tinniswood tells the histories of the legendary Guinness family of brewers, philanthropists, and socialites through their mansions and town houses. His tour opens the door to Irish palaces like Farmleigh (where the Edwardian ballroom is said to have a floor made from barrels brought from the brewery) and Luggala in the Wicklow Mountains. British houses featured include Elveden in Suffolk, the 17,000-acre estate bought by Edward Cecil Guinness, 1st Earl of Iveagh, in 1893 and Robert Adam’s Kenwood on Hampstead Heath, which Lord Iveagh saved from destruction and bequeathed to the British nation.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eUnraveling the stories of more than a dozen great Guinness houses, Tinniswood reveals what life was like for a dynasty that rose from ordinary beginnings in Georgian Dublin to become one of the most powerful families in the British Isles.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis engaging history is abundantly illustrated with archival photographs and paintings as well as specially commissioned photographs of the key properties.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56368146612597,"sku":"9781785516078","price":30.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781785516078_a9f7a089-66eb-47ba-be8b-02b56bbd2f3a.jpg?v=1786025982"},{"product_id":"9781529946604","title":"The Power and the Glory","description":"\u003cp\u003e'\u003cb\u003eGlamour, scholarship and superlative storytelling [...] an enthralling read.\u003c\/b\u003e'\u003cbr\u003eLUCY WORSLEY\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAdrian Tinniswood opens the doors on the excess, intrigue and absurdities of life in the late Victorian and Edwardian country house\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn the decades before the First World War, the owners of the nation’s stately homes revelled in a golden age of glory and glamour. 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