Hugh Montgomery-MassingberdRecensioni

As one who will probably never be in England in person this is the perfect armchair tour. An excellent book to read on a rainy day. Highly recommend.

I am a big fan of obituaries and I'm not really sure why I was disappointed in this book. The subjects are mostly British eccentrics whose obituaries appeared in the Daily Telegraph. There are at least 3 more volumes in the series and maybe they are more interesting but these were sort of repetitive in their eccentricity.

A very entertaining book of obituaries of various Brits. Hugh Massingberd took over the Telegraph's obits in 1986 and they're witty and often hilarious short stories that feel no need to refrain from speaking ill of the dead. A lot of of British pop culture figures that I'm not familiar with but that makes them no less interesting, and there are many veterans of various wars (including the Boer!) whose stories make for gripping yarns. Bonus: a charming cover showing a double decker bus filled with colorful looking characters, destination Paradise - Kensal Green.

This collection of the lives of memorable individuals was often entertaining and never morbid. As an American I didn't understand all of the terminology and abbreviations, but it didn't detract from my enjoyment. And while I wished more than a few times that I'd known some of these characters personally, all in all it felt too long, like too many obits were included. It took me a very long time to finish. I'd recommended reading it in small doses, or picking ones to read at random, rather than reading straight through like I did.

Great Houses of England & Wales (1994) is a coffee-table picture book written by one Hugh Montgomery-Massingberd (say it twice fast), better known as the "father of the modern British obituary", the kind that are irreverent and funny. In addition to obituaries he also wrote bourgeois guides to the British upper-crust with titles like The London Ritz and Heritage of Royal Britain that do exactly what they say on the tin - and so it is with this volume that looks at 25 residences (castles, halls, houses) built between the 13th and 18th centuries.

The pictures are fantastic, by photographer Christopher Simon Sykes. The accompanying text is uneven, sometimes inspired superlatives ("one of the great rooms of the world"), other times boring aristocratic genealogy that numbingly goes on for pages. My favorites include the library in Alnwick Castle (p.18), if I ever win the lottery, this will be the room I re-create, it's my favorite room in the book. Haddon Hall is my favorite home overall, including the incredible Banqueting Hall ca. 1370 (p.22), it has the Romantic look of the Middle Ages. The Baron's Hall (p.40) at Penshurst Place is atmospheric, the kind of place long haired kings carve roasted meat off a spit with a sword. The most curious picture is p.145 showing the Duke of Devonshire asleep on his couch surrounded by a mess of daily papers - no doubt after reading the obituary section.

The most useful part of this volume is the section on 'The Royal Lineage', comprising a set of narrative pedigrees compiled by David Williamson and Jeffrey Finestone.

Don't miss this series. Lots of laughs.