I was so delighted to receive early access to this title. It features the inimitable Mary Beard who is an excellent guide.

The book is organized by parts of the country beginning with London with the last chapter being Norther Ireland. Go in order or dip in. Either works well.

Anglophiles, whether in England or not, will found so much to enjoy in these pages. I'd be hard pressed to say whether I preferred the photos or the text. Both were quite engaging.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the National Trust* for this title. All opinions are my own.

*Also many thanks to the Trust for all that they give us!

This book kept me up half of the night. The stories were fascinating , I learnt so much and the photographs were great. We are members of the National Trust and have been to many of the places in this book but we still found many things that we did not know. The stories behind the houses and their original owners were filled out for us too. Will need to buy this book.

If you have zero or little knowledge about the gems that are covered in this book, you will enjoy it plenty.
Each hidden treasure is presented through information relevant to their qualities.
I had not expected renovation, preservation and conservation elements to be included, which were a nice touch.
Great photos and layout as usual.

With properties ranging from historic mines to the intricacies of a Fabergé egg, it is certainly a difficult task to compress the National Trust’s locations and their hidden treasures into the confines of one book.
There is an odd disparity in the amount of information given to each chapter - there are “I did not know THAT” moments, like that there were charging points along the River Thames to charge electrically powered pleasure boats in the 1920s. But: Do I really need to know the size range of the tiles at Attingham Park? 3.5cm to 5.7cm in case you should worry.
I would have preferred to learn at least something of the methods employed by the restorers rather than the many staged photographs “restorer with tool poised over item” followed by platitudes like “fashions come and go” or “(…) make the work of curators and conservators endlessly satisfying”.
All in all, it compelled me to watch the BBC program this book accompanies.