Arbie's Unoriginally Titled Book Blog
It's a blog! Mainly of book reviews.
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Bath, Kirsten Elliott, Keith Menneer
Kirsten Elliott writes a kind of history of Bath, starting in fact in Pagan Celtic pre-history and ending, sort of, in 2004.
What kind of history is it? One suitable for a book in over-size souvenir gift hardback format. It isn't remotely academic and it is easily read, full as it is, with anecdotes, scandals and legends as well as facts about the architectural development of Bath and life in it's two most famous historical periods, the Roman and the Georgian.
These three things, Roman life, Georgian life and the amazing architecture are what most visitors to Bath are most interested in (if they're not just interested in tea-shops and shopping) so focusing primarily on these things seems entirely appropriate for this kind of coffee-table book so the fact that the history post Victoria's Coronation is cursorily covered, where it is mentioned at all, is something I mention without complaint. There are other books that aim to cover the city's history fully.
In fact, I didn't buy this book for the text, though I read it and enjoyed it and learned quite a bit - including how ignorant I am of architectural terms, what's Strawberry Hill Gothic? - but rather for Keith Menneer's substantial contribution: the photographs. There are many ranging from double page images to quite small illustrative pictures. To a large extent they are present to illustrate the text, which they do an excellent job of, but the fact is that many, especially of the larger one or two page images, go well beyond the illustrative and stand as truly excellent artworks - and these, perhaps more than any number of stories about the changing fashions and fortunes of the city, act as a fabulous memento of a visit to the great little city with the only hot springs in Britain.
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