The Smythson Circle: The Story of Six Great English Houses

In an absorbing narrative stretching from 1541 to 1614, charting the creation of the first Renaissance buildings in England, the author of Bess of Hardwick describes how Chatsworth, Old and New Hardwick Halls, Wollaton, Bolsover Castle, and Longleat all came to be built in this vital period in architectural history. Bess is once again a central character as the patroness of this astonishing burst of activity, but this is also the story of a ghost of unsung heroes who worked on the buildings mainly under Robert Smythson, who can be seen as the "godfather of English architecture."  With painstaking study, the author has uncovered a wealth of personalities who created these buildings, English supermen who were seemingly lost to history. Far from being a dry architectural study, this is a detective story and quintessentially Elizabethan drama, full of grand schemes and sometimes dashed hopes, taking in marital sagas, financial ruin, sudden fires, and a host of unforgettable characters.