The Pevsner Architectural Guides Newsletter for 2023/24 offers progress and plans on ‘concluding (and continuing)’ its Buildings series; updates on recent publications, authors (and friends) sadly lost, and a December offer of 30% off any Pevsner guides, plus free P&P.
… most obvious change….has been the introduction of colour photography…
The Newsletter reports:
Concluding (and continuing) the Buildings series
The publication of Staffordshire in June 2024 will conclude the revision of the Buildings of England series that began in 1983 with Bridget Cherry’s London 2: South. The overall tally of authors in the revised series stands at a remarkable thirty-seven, some of whom took a share in the original sequence, besides many other expert writers who have provided specialist contributions. The most obvious change to the books over these decades has been the introduction of colour photography when the series moved to Yale University Press in 2002. Enhancements to the typography, glossary, indexes, cross-referencing and text illustrations have also been made through the years, without disrupting the classic design of the English books and their companion volumes for Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Coverage of the Welsh series concluded in 2013 with the revised Powys, and publication of the revised Lothian in 2024 will complete the Buildings of Scotland. More remains to be done for the Buildings of Ireland series, new volumes of which are in progress and will be published byYale University Press.
With great sadness we note the passing in 2023 of four authors of books in the Buildings series: Richard Fawcett, co-author of the Borders volume (Buildings of Scotland); Elain Harwood, author of Nottingham in the City Guides series; John Newman, who wrote Glamorgan and Gwent/Monmouthshire for the Buildings of Wales and revised Shropshire and his own original volumes on Kent for the Buildings of England; and Chris Wakeling, whose revision of Staffordshire will now appear posthumously. All were distinguished scholars in wider fields of architectural history. They will be sorely missed, and we are grateful for their work and care in helping to advance the Buildings series.
Virtual launches for new Pevsner volumes
Online launch events continue to be held jointly with our friends at the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art. A recording of past online events for County Durham, Wiltshire and Birmingham and the Black Country can be found here: www. paul-mellon-centre.ac.uk/whats-on/pevsner-events; the one for Oxfordshire: Oxford and the South-East will be up online soon.
