Hampton Court Palace : the official illustrated history /

Much like Athens after its heyday, Britain has become a museum of erstwhile techniques and a site of historical-cultural titillation. One particular location, especially celebrated through the inaugural television docudrama on Henry VIII (who purloined the site from its builder, Cardinal Wolsley), and its former courtly functions, is Hampton Court Palace. Its architectural development, the lives of its better-known occupants, and its evolving function as temporary seat of power, domicile of aging servants of state, plus tourist attraction, is told with grace and the favor of excellent research, informative diagrams, plans, and superb photography of drawings and buildings. Authors Worsley (chief curator, Historic Royal Palaces) and Souden (head of access and learning, Historic Royal Palaces) are adept historians who neatly combine articulate recounting of the familiar with recourse to less-known but fascinating data that recovers the personal ambitions and social constructs that determined its distinctive and diverse fabric. Of value to scholars, the highly readable text and fine production will please a wide audience. ^BSumming Up: Highly recommended. General readers; upper-division undergraduates and graduate students; professionals. R. W. Liscombe University of British Columbia