Living in London by Karen Howes, with photographs by Simon Upton is different - better - than those coffee table profiles of our capital.
The reason is twofold: it is published by a French house, so it has a foreign slant, and it takes us inside the houses of the stylish and famous. Thus, there is Olga Polizzi's small garden designed by George Carter, and Lord Snowdon's green space; Diane Berger's Georgian house (true to period) and Hugo Vickers's library to lust over. I have enjoyed visiting a few of these houses - Christophe Gollut's grand apartment, Keith Skeel's eccentric space and Min Hogg's charming one.
Otherwise, the book plunges into London's villages and mens' clubs, artists' studios and small museums. Not just a treat, it is a fine portrait of a wonderful city.
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Alan Titchmarsh: You wouldn't think it, but Surrey is the most wooded of all England's counties — and its Scots pines are as beautiful as any of its treesAlan Titchmarsh is selling his house
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A classic oast house on the outside, a wild architectural fantasy inside, and just down the road from one of Kent's best grammar schoolsAnnabel Dixon steps inside Joldwyns, a house where even seasoned property professionals admit to being 'blown away by the incredible juxtaposition and the importance of the architectural feats'.
