Echoing Voices - Hardcover

John Harris

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0719564832 ISBN 13: 9780719564833

Publisher: John Murray, 2002

Synopsis

In No Voice from the Hall, John Harris recollected his covert entry into empty and deserted country houses in the years after World War II. Here, he now broadens his sights, sometimes straying into Europe or as far off as Malaya and the USA. This memoir draws together incidents and adventures throughout John Harris' life. We hear of Ruler Matlock who set him against formal education, of his antics during his very short apprenticeship as an upholsterer at Heal's, and of his brief yet profitable curatorship of the Grotto of the Four Walls at the Battersea Pleasure Gardens. In France in 1953 he is befriended by Richard Penard, the great French collector. He trespasses into the Desert de Retz to find the faded glory of the China House and the Broken Column, and he experiences the Bohemian life of a student on the Left Bank in Paris. At Paul Mellon's Oak Spring, in Virginia, he is awakened by gangsters and we read with astonishment of MI5 bugging Anthony Blunt's rooms above the RIBA's Drawings Collection. As the tales proceed, new comrades join his snooping.With them he shudders at the horrors of the Hazelwood Chuckle House, travels to Czechoslovakia and at Horin discovers the glories of a decayed baroque suite of apartments and meets its custodian, a Polish Hurricane pilot. This book features many figures from the art and architectural world: Francis Watson, James Lees-Milne, Nikolaus Pevsner, Paul Mellon, Basil Spence and others.

About this title

About the Author:

John Harris was joint organizer of the celebrated 'Destruction of the Country House' exhibition at the Vistoria and Albert Museum in 1974. He has also published many books on architecture, gardens, the decorative arts and architectural drawings. He is now Curator Emeritus of the Royal Institute of British Architects' Drawings Collection. He lives in London and Badminton.

Review:

'A hilarious, honest little book about dishonesty ! John Harris's forty-six potted adventures are addictive. If the death of James Lees-Milne appeared to end a chronicle of golden nostalgia, then John Harris has taken up the baton by showing us the wicked silver realties behind it all.' -- Timothy Mowl, Times Literary Supplement 20021129 'The picture of a maverick which emerges from this book is ever more strongly drawn ! Harris writes nostalgically on the romance of ruins, and compellingly on the thrill of "Pevsner-bashing", the discovery of countless architectural gems, around the corner, over the hill, or behind locked gates, through a combination of insatiable curiosity, creative map-reading and a willingness to trespass.' -- Ruth Guilding, The Spectator 20030102 'Above all this is a gallery of exotic and strange characters form the world of antique dealing and art collecting -- to be set alongside the best anthologies of grand British eccentrics.' -- Marcus Binney, The Times 20030115 Praise for NO VOICE FROM THE HALL: 'Bids fair to become a cult book' -- John Carey, Sunday Times 20030115 'An intensely romantic, poignant, angry, freguently hilarious and hauntingly illustrated memoir' -- Hugh Massingbird 20030115 'The best non-fiction book I have read this year' -- Ursula Buchan, The Spectator 20030115

About this edition

• Publisher: John Murray
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0719564832
• ISBN 13: 9780719564833
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256