Architectural History of Cornwall

A new book has seen a number of writers — including Patrick Newbury from Stoke Climsland — collaborate to give an architectural history of Cornwall.

Books on Cornish architectural history are few and far between and the new work is entitled ‘Celebrating Pevsner: new research on Cornish architecture’.

Books on the architectural history of the county are uncommon, a position in part corrected in 2014 with the publication of the revised ‘Buildings of England: Cornwall’. This volume, manfully reviewed by Peter Beacham between 2000 and 2014, will long be held as the authoritative account of architects and builders of Cornwall’s built environment.

read more here @ Cornish & Devon Post

Fallen Glory by James Crawford

Here & Now's Meghna Chakrabarti talks to James Crawford about the book:

There is no question that we invest our greatest structures and constructions with personalities. We care about buildings – some- times, perhaps, more than we care about our fellow human beings. We shout with joy when we raise them up; we weep with sorrow when we destroy them. And, of course, we do continue to destroy them – buildings young and old, all over the world.

Even the longest human life barely exceeds a century. How much more epic are the lives of buildings, which can endure for thousands of years? Unlike the people who made them, these structures experience not just one major historical event, but a great accumulation of them, in some cases stretching all the way from the prehistoric era to the present day. In its lifetime, the same building can meet Julius Caesar, Napoleon and Adolf Hitler. What human could claim the same? If we let them, buildings have the potential to be the ultimate raconteurs. These are some of their stories.

Read entire article here @ Here & Now (note: I especially liked his view on GeoCities - former free website hosting site)

Review by Robert Douglas Fairhurst @ The Telegraph
Review by Stuart Kelly @ The Scotsman