An authoritative survey of British buildings between the wars by the late Gavin Stamp - one of Britain's best-known architecture critics

'Elegant, erudite and entertaining ... a superbly detailed picture of an architectural era' The Times 'A magnificent monument in itself to a fine architectural writer' Simon Heffer, Telegraph British architecture between the wars is most famous for the rise of modernism - the flat roofs, clean lines and concrete of the Isokon flats in Hampstead and the Penguin Pool at London Zoo - but the reality was far more diverse. As the modernists came of age and the traditionalists began to decline, there arose a rich variety of styles and tastes in Britain and across the empire, a variety that reflected the restless zeitgeist of the years before the Second World War. At the time of his death in 2017, Gavin Stamp, one of Britain's leading architectural critics, was at work on a deeply considered account of British architecture in the interwar period, correcting what he saw as the skewed view of earlier historians who were unable to see past modernism. Beginning with a survey of the modern movement after the armistice, Interwar untangles the threads that link lesser-known movements like the Egyptian revival with the enduring popularity of the Tudorbethan, to chronicle one of Britain's most dynamic architectural periods. The result is more than an architectural history - it is the portrait of a changing nation. As an account of the period that still shapes much of Britain's towns and cities, Gavin Stamp's final work is the definitive history of British architecture between the Great War and the Blitz.

"Elegant, erudite and entertaining ... rich ... offers a superbly detailed picture of an architectural era chiefly defined by its multiplicity of styles" - The Times

"Majestic ... [an] excitable, illuminating and sure to be enduring work" - Financial Times

"His greatest work ... When so much of our built environment is unlovely, Stamp shows why it is worth looking again, and harder" - New Statesman

"Simple and elegant ... never doctrinaire, [Stamp] is an accessible gentleman-scholar guide to his subject ... Interwar is a riposte to the standard narrative about the emergence of modernism" - Times Literary Supplement

"A magnificent monument in itself to a fine architectural writer" - Daily Telegraph

"Extraordinary ... a most brilliant, authoritative and engaging guide ... Stamp's ability to present clearly for a general audience was as unusual as it is remarkable" - Country Life

"Extraordinary ... a magnificent tour d'horizon, a bible of the styles available to architects" - The Critic

"Definitive ... both vital and clear, a book steeped in technical detail, full of meticulous attention, yet accessible and without prejudice - never dry and certainly not florid ... Stamp wrote definitive books on grand and humble subjects" - Spectator

"'Magisterial ... a monumental achievement ... in untangling the threads of a period of unimaginable change and stubborn constancy, Stamp is a forensic and sympathetic chronicler. You wish he were still on the stage. But in Interwar he has left behind the work of a lifetime" - Apollo Magazine

"[Interwar] is valuable in its lively and perceptive discussion of a range of buildings and debates from the period" - Literary Review

"Stamp was a superb writer with an untouchable knowledge of the period ... a wonderful memorial to a great writer" - Art Newspaper

"This posthumous volume is the masterpiece [Stamp] did not publish in his lifetime. It puts his memory on a new plane" - Englesberg Ideas

"Love it or hate it, [interwar Britain] was a period full of personality: a changing society recovering from war and the Depression, hungry for a different future. There is fascination in their built footprints" - The Times

"Thrilling ... Interwar looks to redress the imbalance Stamp saw in our architectural history - namely, that there was more to the interbellum period than modernism. Taking in everything from the Egyptian revival to the ubiquitous Tudorbethan, this handsome title makes the case for a more dynamic and diverse view of the past" - The Modern House

"A rebuttal of the modernist-centric view of interwar British architecture. It was much more diverse than people think, [Stamp] argues, and studying the lesser-known movements is key to understanding the period" - Apollo

"Praise for Gavin Stamp" - :

"It is a puzzle to me that Stamp is not better known. He is eloquent, funny and eccentric. He is as familiar with the streets of our cities as a taxi driver with The Knowledge, and brilliant at connecting sublime ideas with the ordinary aspects of our daily lives" - Sunday Telegraph

"Acute, erudite, elegant" - The Times

"A wonderful celebration of the best in English design, and a stylish invective against the worst." - Observer

"Informative and engaging about all kinds of English things, from royal tombs to London buses ... Stamp always tell[s] you something new, which is a wonderful thing" - Guardian

"Much, much more than architectural history, for here, encapsulated in marmoreally angry prose, is an account of that collective act of mass murder, without parallel in history, known as the Great War. An unforgettable, passionate book" - Evening Standard