I bought this book last Christmas because the title looked interesting. It was definitely a worthwhile purchase.

A witty and enjoyable read, Mount skilfully covers a lot of ground, although I don't think the book is quite as dip-in and dip-out as he suggests in the foreword, as the chapters build upon each other, particular in the technical details of the buildings, so that I'm not sure that someone who'd read the book out of order without previous knowledge of architectural terms would be able to entirely follow. I think some of the detail could do have done with being fleshed out, because, especially in the middle section about Gothic windows, I lost the thread of historical story.

There's also a few occasions where he refers to pictures on the covers, which I'm sure are there in the hardback, but they're not there in the paperback.

But, those minor gripes aside, I had a lot of fun reading this, and, since reading it, using the information in the book while looking at buildings. ( )

Though Harry Mount says that this is a book to dip into, rather than read from beginning to end, I started at the beginning and read right through to the glossary and acknowledgements (I did stop short at the index). It is such an enjoyable book, a light-hearted, witty and knowledgeable description of architecture in Britain, full of literary, poetic and filmographic quotations that act as mnemonics. I particularly liked the walking or driving routes at the end, and especially the train ride from Kings Cross to Edinburgh - I have taken that train so many times from London to Darlington and never saw how special the columns of Darlington station are. I love every bit of this book, including the illustrations on the endpapers and even the dust jacket whose photos and drawings are referenced in the text.
Rarely have I learned such a lot from a single book, even a very useful German word which has no equivalent in English, Schwellenangst (a fear of crossing over thresholds). It can be used figuratively. ( )