Lives of Houses
Written by Kate Kennedy and Hermione Lee
Narrated by Kate Kennedy, Hermione Lee, Lisa Coleman and
5/5
()
About this audiobook
A group of notable writers—including UK poet laureate Simon Armitage, Julian Barnes, Margaret MacMillan, and Jenny Uglow—celebrate our fascination with the houses of famous literary figures, artists, composers, and politicians of the past
What can a house tell us about the person who lives there? Do we shape the buildings we live in, or are we formed by the places we call home? And why are we especially fascinated by the houses of the famous and often long-dead? In Lives of Houses, a group of notable biographers, historians, critics, and poets explores these questions and more through fascinating essays on the houses of great writers, artists, composers, and politicians of the past.
Editors Kate Kennedy and Hermione Lee are joined by wide-ranging contributors, including Simon Armitage, Julian Barnes, David Cannadine, Roy Foster, Alexandra Harris, Daisy Hay, Margaret MacMillan, Alexander Masters, and Jenny Uglow. We encounter W. H. Auden, living in joyful squalor in New York's St. Mark's Place, and W. B. Yeats in his flood-prone tower in the windswept West of Ireland. We meet Benjamin Disraeli, struggling to keep up appearances, and track the lost houses of Virginia Woolf and Elizabeth Bowen. We visit Benjamin Britten in Aldeburgh, England, and Jean Sibelius at Ainola, Finland. But Lives of Houses also considers those who are unhoused, unwilling or unable to establish a home—from the bewildered poet John Clare wandering the byways of England to the exiled Zimbabwean writer Dambudzo Marechera living on the streets of London.
With more than forty illustrations, Lives of Houses illuminates what houses mean to us and how we use them to connect to and think about the past. The result is a fresh and engaging look at house and home.
Featuring Alexandra Harris on moving house ? Susan Walker on Morocco's ancient Roman House of Venus ? Hermione Lee on biographical quests for writers’ houses ? Margaret Macmillan on her mother's Toronto house ? a poem by Maura Dooley, "Visiting Orchard House, Concord, Massachusetts"—the house in which Louisa May Alcott wrote and set her novel Little Women ? Felicity James on William and Dorothy Wordsworth's Dove Cottage ? Robert Douglas-Fairhurst at home with Tennyson ? David Cannadine on Winston Churchill's dream house, Chartwell ? Jenny Uglow on Edward Lear at San Remo's Villa Emily ? Lucy Walker on Benjamin Britten at Aldeburgh, England ? Seamus Perry on W. H. Auden at 77 St. Mark's Place, New York City ? Rebecca Bullard on Samuel Johnson's houses ? a poem by Simon Armitage, "The Manor" ? Daisy Hay at home with the Disraelis ? Laura Marcus on H. G. Wells at Uppark ? Alexander Masters on the fear of houses ? Elleke Boehmer on sites associated with Zimbabwean writer Dambudzo Marechera ? Kate Kennedy on the mental asylums where World War I poet Ivor Gurney spent the last years of his life ? a poem by Bernard O'Donoghue, "Safe Houses" ? Roy Foster on W. B. Yeats and Thoor Ballylee ? Sandra Mayer on W. H. Auden's Austrian home ? Gillian Darley on John Soane and the autobiography of houses ? Julian Barnes on Sibelius and Ainola
Kate Kennedy
Kate Kennedy is a Chicago-based millennial multi-hyphenate, author, entrepreneur and pop culture commentator, best known for hosting her weekly pop culture podcast Be There in Five. Kennedy has a marketing degree from the Pamplin School of Business at Virginia Tech, and prior to starting Be There in Five, was an Ogilvy Award nominated market researcher turned accidental entrepreneur. Kate's life changed when she decided to put “turn off your curling iron” on her doormat so she wouldn’t burn her apartment down. Her "remindoormats" captured the zeitgeist, selling thousands and featured in Glamour, Good Housekeeping, RealSimple, HuffPost, BuzzFeed, Self, and Martha Stewart. Be There in Five is now a full-time gig and has led her to sold-out live shows across the country. Kate's career and commentary have been featured in People, HuffPost, New York Times, BuzzFeed, and The Washington Post.
Related to Lives of Houses
Related audiobooks
An Open Book Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A House Through Time Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHereafter: The Telling Life of Ellen O'Hara Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEx Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Footnotes: A Journey Round Britain in the Company of Great Writers Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Orwell Tour: Travels through the life and work of George Orwell Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Making of Modern Britain Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/51922: Scenes from a Turbulent Year Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5The Giants of Irish Literature: Wilde, Yeats, Joyce, and Beckett Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Chaucer: A European Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Quick Classics Collection: British Writers: Silas Marner, Sons and Lovers, Bleak House Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Paper Garden: An Artist Begins Her Life's Work at 72 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Unfinished Palazzo Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Louvre: The Many Lives of the World's Most Famous Museum Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Flower Diary: In Which Mary Hiester Reid Paints, Travels, Marries & Opens a Door Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTo the Island of Tides: A Journey to Lindisfarne Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Mantel Pieces: Royal Bodies and Other Writing from the London Review of Books Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Across Canada by Story: A Coast-to-Coast Literary Adventure Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Jane Austen Handbook: Proper Life Skills from Regency England Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMaking Oscar Wilde Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Mystery of Charles Dickens Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Feast Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Discerning Eye Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsVenice Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Walking The Invisible Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All the Wide Border: Wales, England and the Places Between Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Collector of Lives: Giorgio Vasari and the Invention of Art Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Winter Words Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Blue Flower Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Adventures of Miss Barbara Pym Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
General Fiction For You
The Duke and I Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Alchemist Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Court of Thorns and Roses Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Court of Wings and Ruin Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5All the Light We Cannot See: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Good Omens: A Full Cast Production Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Court of Mist and Fury Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5And Then There Were None Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5It Ends with Us Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Finn Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5If He Had Been with Me Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Court of Frost and Starlight Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Return of the King Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dead Zone Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Name of the Wind Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5American Gods: The Tenth Anniversary Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Two Towers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Neverwhere Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ocean at the End of the Lane: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stardust Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dutch House: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Finding Me: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Paris Apartment: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Overstory Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Their Eyes Were Watching God Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Bell Jar Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Lives of Houses
1 rating0 reviews