Pugin’s short life was filled with relentless activity – Charles Barry, with whom he collaborated on the Houses of Parliament, referred to his ‘50 horse-power of creation.’ Uncompromising in his medievalism, he pioneered the Gothic Revival style that became the hallmark of the High Victorian age. Rosemary Hill’s account of his life and buildings, described by Claire Tomalin as ‘an altogether outstanding biographical and historical work’, is the first full modern treatment of this driven, complex and ultimately tragic genius.

Dinah Birch writes:

One of the many achievements of Rosemary Hill’s masterful biography is that she does justice to the drama of Pugin’s life without losing sight of its gravity. She is not blind to his faults, for it is clear that he could be stubbornly self-involved, and infuriatingly limited in his understanding of his own situation or that of others. But she is on his side, and he emerges from her meticulously researched account as an honest, generous and courageous man. He could not afford to be careless of money; he had a living to earn and a growing family to support. Yet worldly success, personal or professional, was never his priority. It was his refusal to compromise that made his life extraordinary, and finally made it momentous.

(LRB 20 September 2007)

Allen Lane | hardback 602 pp. |ISBN: 9780713994995