English Eccentric: A celebration of imaginative, intriguing and truly stylish interiors

I ADORE THIS BOOK!What a delight this is for the person who is interested in non-conventional interior design. I was prompted to buy this for myself after suffering through a retched design seminar that my best friend dragged me to. The speakers advocated living a simple, clutter-free life.....reducing collections and all things that make a room your own. When one of these so-called experts started in on how one should pare down one's book collection to only a choice twenty-five books or so, I could scarcely contain myself!The pictures they displayed to illustrate these calming, enlightened, EMPTY rooms were just too awful to be believed. When I was asked my opinion about one, I replied that it looked quite like a hospital operating theater.....and the speakers both beamed with pleasure! AAAGH!So I soothed myself later that evening by browsing through the design books available here on Amazon and stumbled across this tome, which from the cover-look and the description seemed to be the very antithesis of the minimalist nonsense I had wasted two hours of my life upon. So with no more information than that, I ordered it........and fell in love. Only a few homes are highlighted in this, with multiple shots of the same rooms appearing throughout (which is very necessary, in my opinion, when there is so much to see from so many differing angles in each room). I am enjoying this a great deal.My style milleau is Victorian/Steampunk, and I have a home that reflects my tastes. Whether or not this means I and my home are in "style" at the moment is of no consequence at all to me! This is a wonderful picture-driven book of lush, eccentric, overdone nooks and crannies of homes of people who are obviously interesting and interested in the world. No minimalized, tidy living here!The photos are gorgeous, full of rich true colors shown throughout, with just enough writing to help tell the story of the rooms and the collections. This does makes for a lovely "coffeetable book" (oh, how I hate that term), but I find that I have to have it open all of the time, as I browse through it again and again!

I buy a lot of books and many of them are about interior design. I am simply going to say that this is my favorite in a long time. The title says it all. These are deeply personal interiors, built over years and assembled in layers, that speak to who the assemblers are and what makes their souls sing. The photography is all you'd want it to be. I am crazy about this book and nearly ready to buy another copy just so I can stop carrying it up and down the stairs in order to read it at odd moments. I am often disappointed to find that the inner pages of a book don't equal the promise made by the cover or title...English Eccentrics doesn't disappoint

"English Eccentric" is a feast for the eyes, a wonderfully beautiful look at highly individual homes alive with energy. Little sense of a professional decorator at work infuses these rooms, for there are few matched suites of upholstered seating, no shrinking from the old and the sometimes decrepit, and few concerns about pristine floors or walls. On the other hand, charm and a sense of welcome abound.What makes the homes of "English Eccentric" so fascinating? From the architectural point of view, the most striking features are the many gloriously tall ceilings which lend an air of elegance and provide vertical space for substantial displays of both art and collectibles. On the decorative front, there is an extraordinary layering of fabrics and textile designs, abundance of possessions, mix of the high-brow and low-brow, and use of dramatic wall-coverings and paint colors. Meanwhile, displays of stuffed animals and botanical art, foreign souvenirs, and religious icons call to mind cabinets of curiosities from the Baroque era. All told, the decors and possessions featured in this book speak to an organic process of evolution and a most impressive lust for life.

Wonderful views into the houses (and lives) of creative Brits. My house would look like this if I didn't have a wife who likes things uncluttered and simple. The rooms displayed within only encourage us collector-types to run wild. Probably, you shouldn't read it if you got stuck with the pack-rat gene.

Love this book and wish there were more like it. If you love a Bohemian style but not the young hippie kind, you might love this, too. Very classy and a million ideas! After having it on a table for awhile, I painted my living room with the wall and trim colors in the cover photo. With all lot of wall art,collectibles ,mirrors and old stuff...it is unbelievably gorgeous! !!

Gorgeous book celebrating the eclectic, the eccentric, and likely all that you expected if enticed to purchase this book because of the title or cover.

Wonderful quirky interiors! I'll be studying these photos a lot. I strongly recommend the book. There's another--English Eccentric Interiors--which is not nearly so good. If you're trying to decide between the two, I say go for this one.

Well-done photography and unusual interiors. Yoriba influenced room fascinating.

A few photographs of interesting interiors - but no real critical review of the subject matter. Much of the content is light-weight 'lifestyle' commentary about the people who live in the houses. Why not a critical, thought-provoking review of what "English Eccentric" actually means. What is the unifying esthetic here? Even some critical appraisal of why the specific interiors work / don't work, or what the designers were thinking of would have been useful. Surely these places are not just random collections of 'stuff' surrounded by brightly-colored and/or randomly threadbare walls. I would like to have read how one might approach this sort of design rather than learning a few random facts about the owners 'interesting' private lives and past-careers. I see that the author has a degree from Oxford - I thought that the point of that was refined critical thinking. Not much in evidence here I am afraid.

The book is a delight, & the service from the supplier was exemplary. The book shows how imaginative people can be in their homes. A real inspiration to be creative in your domestic surroundings. Excellent photographs & production too.

Some I had seen before, many well known not included, some new ones which I didn't find eccentric at all, butI suspect were included to attract the current interior fashion. Normally I'm very fond of Ros Byam Shaws books but this one was a bit disapointing.

Ros has done it again. A beautiful coffee table book full of stunning photos. It has been passed around various friends and it has been a catalyst for several of us to take the plunge and grab a paintbrush loaded with colour. Be gone Magnolia emulsion forever!

Lovely Book for yhe coffee table. Great pictures.