Review: Noble Ambitions

I’ve been trying to read more nonfiction for the last few years because I just don’t tend to gravitate towards them. There’s no real reason why. I just…don’t! With that in mind, I thought I would try the audiobook of Noble Ambitions: The Fall and Rise of the English Country House After World War II. I was pretty captivated with Adrian Tinniswood’s book and narrator Roger May was excellent.

Here’s the book’s description:

A rollicking tour of the English country home after World War II, when swinging London collided with aristocratic values
As the sun set slowly on the British Empire, its mansions fell and rose. Ancient families were reduced to demolishing the parts of their stately homes they could no longer afford, dukes and duchesses desperately clung to their ancestral seats, and a new class of homeowners bought their way into country life. A delicious romp, Noble Ambitions pulls us into these crumbling halls of power, leading us through the juiciest bits of postwar aristocratic history—from Mick Jagger dancing at deb balls to the scandals of Princess Margaret. Capturing the spirit of the age, historian Adrian Tinniswood proves that the country house is not only an iconic symbol, but a lens through which to understand the shifting fortunes of the British elite in an era of monumental social change.

Raise your hand if you watched Downton Abbey. *looks around* Yes, I thought there were a few of you. You know how Lord Grantham, Mary, and the rest had to find a way to save the house? And how the real life owners of the house it’s filmed at, Highclere Castle, also had to find a way to save their house and did so by opening it up for filming? This book essentially told the real life story of people just like the Crawleys. It shared how the houses fell into disrepair after years of glory and then started to become popular and established once again. Some of the stories were absolutely mindboggling and I can’t believe what some of the owners went through to try and keep their home.

May was a great narrator and I could have listened to him talk about just about anything for much longer than 13.5 hours of this audiobook. His tone was more conversational than lecturing, which I appreciated.

I have to say, though, as much as I loved the audiobook and narration, I couldn’t help but wish I could have seen all the photos of the houses (that I assume are in the print edition). Tinniswood talks about SO MANY houses that it was hard to keep straight and seeing it in writing and in photos may have helped a little bit.

It was interesting to read this one and feel so much sympathy for the owners of these massive houses. You can’t really help it because, for a lot of them, they were losing their family's homes because of taxes and death duties and the sheer expense of the upkeep of a crumbling stone house. But on the flip side…some of those families were at the tippy top of the elite and some of the Haves did nothing to help the Have Nots. Tinniswood doesn’t get into the social divide too much – other than to talk about the servants and how they left service because there were other options available to them. All of it gave me something to ponder as I listened to the descriptions of the opulence that was once seen – and then seen again – at these houses.

Those who enjoy history, and English history in particular, will like Adrian Tinniswood’s book. There are tons of interesting facts – and equally interesting gossip – in the pages of Noble Ambitions that made for an enjoyable read.

*An advanced audiobook copy of this novel was provided by Hachette Audio in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.*