Bence-Jones, Mark.

A Guide to Irish Country Houses.

Revised Edition. London, Constable, 1990. 22 cm x 30 cm. XXXI, 320 pages. Original Hardcover with dustjacket. Excellent condition of a rare book.

Mark Adayre Bence-Jones (29 May 1930 – 12 April 2010) was a British writer, noted mainly for his books on Irish architecture, the British aristocracy and the British Raj. He regarded himself as being both Irish and English, seeing no contradiction in these statements of nationality. Following the war, the family moved to Ireland, where they had originally come from, the ancestral home having been Lisselane in County Cork, which had left family ownership in the early 1930s. Instead they bought a decaying country house called Glenville Park, located near Cork City. Bence-Jones completed his schooling at Ampleforth College, and went on to study history at Pembroke College, Cambridge, then agriculture at the Royal Agricultural College, at Cirencester, with the intention of running the family’s estate in Ireland. Bence-Jones is best known for his authorship of Burke’s Guide to Country Houses Volume 1: Ireland, (1978). This was an ambitious work, trying to record the architecture of all the Irish country houses, including those that were, by then, lost or ruined. He made copious use of photographs and family albums in private ownership. He also wrote three books about India, Palaces of the Raj (1973), The Viceroys of India (1982) and Clive of India (1987). The first of these is believed to be the first book to give serious academic consideration to the subject of British architecture in India, He was the consultant editor for Burke’s Irish Family Records, 1973–76. In later years, ill health prevented him from finishing a biography of his friend, the novelist Elizabeth Bowen. It also limited his travelling, and he gave the house at Glenville to his younger daughter. Bence-Jones died in hospital in April 2010. (Wikipedia).

• Keywords: Architectural History · Architecture · Architecture – Rare · Catalogue Irish History – Art and Architecture · Catalogue Irish History Three – From Famine to Free State · Country House · Irish History – Rare · Irish Houses
• Language: English
• ISBN: 9780094699908
• Inventory Number: 78105AB

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