ANGUS REID, ANDY HEDGECOCK and MARIA DUARTE review On The Sea, A Useful Ghost, Brunello: The Gracious Visionary, and Pinocchio Unstrung
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Ugliness and Judgement: On Architecture in the Public Eye by Timothy Hyde
Ugly but entertaining truths about architectural controversies over the last three centuries
RON JACOBS enjoys a great tale, told by a US communist, of the lives of working-class New Yorkers
BRENT CUTLER searches a new history of contemporary Iran for an understanding of the Islamic Republic, finding both interesting detail and glaring omissions
MARIA DUARTE recommends the true story of the remarkable woman who sued Donald Trump for sexual assault not once, but twice
KENNY MacASKILL is disappointed by a polemical, rather than factual, account of the Lone Star State and its political path since the civil war
PAUL DONOVAN is fascinated by the lives of Charles and Mary Bagot, and the insight this biography shines on the morals of pre-Victorian society
GORDON PARSONS appreciates fine performances and a feel for ambiguity, but misses the music of the dialogue
THE CONSEQUENCES of some buildings being considered “ugly” and the social impact of such aesthetic judgement over three centuries in Britain are explored in this engaging study by Timothy Hyde.
En route, Hyde considers architectural controversies in London surrounding the gothic revival Houses of Parliament, the brutalist concrete of the South Bank and the historicist novelty of No 1 Poultry.
They became embroiled in art, science, religion, political economy and government, with architects as diverse as Christopher Wren, John Soane, James Stirling and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe summoned by would-be august tribunals of aesthetic judgement in Parliament, the courts and public inquiries.
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