GEORGE MYERS: PUGIN'S BUILDER
Patricia Spencer-Silver
Gracewing 978 0 85244 184 8 294 hardback £20.00

This is a revised edition, with some new material and added illustrations, of a book which originally appeared in 1993. Patricia Spencer-Silver, who is a descendant of George Myers, gives an absorbing account of the life of Myers (1803-1875), a great Victorian contractor, who was known particularly as Pugin's favourite builder, and for whom he built many churches and his house, The Grange, at Ramsgate. Myers also worked extensively on many other projects, producing important buildings across a wide range, including workhouses, military hospitals and country houses, not to mention many restorations.

Invaluable for all Pugin enthusiasts, and also for all who are interested in the complex workings of the Victorian building trade, this book is a most rewarding read.
To order, look on line at http://www.gracewing.co.uk or ring 01568 616835

ANOTHER MAGNIFICENT COLLECTION

Dr Margaret Belcher's meticulously edited Volume III of The Collected Letters of A.W.N. Pugin, published by Oxford University Press, has now appeared. This continues Dr Belcher's fine achievement, demonstrating unrivalled commitment and scholarship, and is full of remarkable and indispensable insights into the life and work of Augustus Pugin, covering the years 1846 to1848. Essential for any Pugin scholar or enthusiast.

NEW FROM SPIRE BOOKS

Pugin's stained glass - at last! The scholarly account that all Puginites have so long hoped to see, written by expert and Pugin Society member, Dr Stanley Shepherd.

Please click here for more information and an order form downloaded as a PDF to your hard drive.

VIVAT PUGIN!

God's Architect: Pugin and the Building of Romantic Britain
by Rosemary Hill, Penguin, £30.00 ISBN ISBN 978 0 713 99499 5

It is extremely exciting to think that in 2008 this new biography, the first for over seventy years, of Augustus Pugin was published. All the time Pugin's fame is growing. The Victoria and Albert Museum exhibition, Pugin: A Gothic Passion, was held in 1994, in 1995 the Pugin Society was founded, and in 2006 the Landmark Trust completed the restoration of the Grange, the house at Ramsgate which Pugin designed and built, and in which he lived. Channel 4's Time Team Special programme on the house has given massive publicity to the restoration.

Now, Society Committee member Rosemary Hill, acclaimed critic, writer and historian, has crowned these achievements with a brilliant and perceptive account of the colourful, sometimes sad, but always gripping life of Augustus Pugin. Enthusiasts may now not only be able to visit the house of Pugin but really get to know the man himself, to an unprecedented degree. Rosemary has recently been awarded the highly prestigious James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Biography. This award complements the fact that God's Architect is now out in paperback, for the modest price of £10.99, and so the story of Pugin's remarkable life is now readily available. God's Architect has also received the Wolfson History Prize (2007) and the Elizabeth Longford Prize for Historical Biography (2008).

MORE PUGIN PUBLICATIONS

This is not all - two more outstanding books, both by significant Pugin experts and Society members, have also appeared to add to our understanding of Pugin, his times and his influence. They are Michael Fisher's Hardman of Birmingham: Goldsmith and Glass-painter, Landmark Publishing, £25.00, 978 1 843063 62 9 and Timothy Brittain-Catlin's The English Parsonage in the Early Nineteenth Century, Spire Books, £30.00, ISBN 978 1 904965 16 9.

Fisher's absorbing account of the development of the firm of John Hardman, with its intimate links with the life and work of A.W.N Pugin, is indispensable reading for all those interested in Pugin. Packed with matter and many illustrations, and taking the story of the firm right up to today, it is not to be missed. Brittain-Catlin provides a first-rate analysis and account, with superb photographs by Martin Charles, of the evolution of the parsonage house in the first half of the nineteenth century. He demonstrates particularly what an important part Pugin played in the development of this so very desirable form of domestic architecture, and adds much fascinating social detail.

ST OSMUND'S RC CHURCH, SALISBURY

This church, built by Pugin, but with additions, is soon to be the subject of restoration and conservation work costed at £217,000. This will include the refurbishing and conservation of the Pugin east window, and possibly other windows as well, and the replacement of inappropriate lighting. Outside, roof tiles, guttering, coping stones and more will be repaired and renewed where necessary. Listed building consent has been given and the Historic Churches Committee consulted. Some alterations are also to be made to the Edward Pugin church hall.