At its grandest it is a stately home furnished with antiques, but the houses featured in this book are country cottages, farmhouses, townhouses and flats. What links them is as much an attitude as a look. The English style of decoration is practical and informal, designed around the inhabitants of the rooms rather than to impress. These houses are lived in and loved, with interiors that are relaxed and not afraid to be pretty. The book’s chapters, Plain English, English Eccentric, English Rose, English Country House and Classic English reflect the many facets of English style, and each section ends with pages devoted to ideas for furnishing a house in all these versions of English style.