THE QUALITY OF BOOKS about architecture covers the full range from excellent to execrable. Recency of publication is not a reliable guide to greatness. Only two weeks ago, I picked up in a second-hand bookshop a luxurious sixpart series called Cathedrals, Abbeys, and Churches of England and Wales, by T.G. Bonney, published in 1892, for just £20. Professor Bonney’s work feels like the last word on the subject. So one must have a very good reason to write another book about architecture, and we all need an even better reason to read it.
Le Corbusier once said “the Styles are a, shares that sentiment, inasmuch as he believes we ought to evaluate buildings for what they do rather than the style in which they are built. Here he follows the venerable Nikolaus Pevsner’s (1976), referenced in the endnote, and does a very commendable job of introducing us (whether working architects or laypeople) to this approach. It is this that makes worth reading.
