The Long Weekend Life in the English Country House, 1918-1939 Adrian Tinniswood

This is a thoroughly researched and well-written account by Adrian Tinniswoodabout this era.  Although the aristocracy lost many of their sons in the war and several great houses were sold and turned into institutions such as schools, this is not entirely a tale of woe.  Lots of new country houses were built and some of these even had surprisingly modern architecture and new traditions were formed to replace the rigidly formal old ones

There are some interesting anecdotes in this book.  For example, Buckingham Palace was built because the Prince Regent wanted a pied a'terre and Queen Alexandra insisted on staying at the large house at Sandringham and made King George stay in the much smaller York house with his family of six. He didn't have the heart to make her leave! However, there is much more focus on the architecture and interior design of the houses than on the people who lived there, I thought.  I would have liked to read more about the people.

This is a good book to read if you are interested in the English country house during this time.
I received this free ebook from Net Galley in return for an honest review.