NOBLE AMBITIONS:

A rollicking tour of the English country home after World War II, when swinging London collided with aristocratic values. As the sun set slowly on the British Empire, its mansions fell and rose. Ancient families were reduced to demolishing the parts of their stately homes they could no longer afford; dukes and duchesses desperately clung to their ancestral seats, and a new class of homeowners bought their way into country life. Tottering under the weight of rising taxes and a growing sense that they had no place in 20th century Britain, hundreds of ancestral piles were dismantled and demolished. Perhaps even more surprising was the fact that so 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, the book takes us on a lively tour of these crumbling halls of power, as a rakish, raffish, aristocratic Swinging London collided with traditional rural values and the Americans invaded too. Capturing the spirit of the age, historian Adrian Tinniswood proves that the country house is not only an iconic symbol, but a lens through which to understand the shifting fortunes of the British elite in an era of monumental social change. It's all about keeping up appearances, grandeur fit for a queen, a rich interior, country pursuits and balls, plus some jolly bad behaviour. Many colour plates, over 50 photographs. 422 pages.