Lancelot 'Capability' Brown, 1716-1783
The Omnipotent Magician
- Published: 2 May 2011
- ISBN: 9781409019428
- Imprint: Vintage Digital
- Format: EBook
- Pages: 400
A worthwhile account of the designer of choice for the wealthy late-18th-century landowner
Caroline Donald, Sunday Times, Books of the Year
Brown's book is a good read
Jane Owen, Financial Times
Brown's meticulous research and almost scholarly approach to the subject in hand means the reader is treated to an in-depth look at the man
Press Association
Close attention to detail and brisk and vigorous prose
Times Literary Supplement
Engaging
Good Book Guide
Her book should find a home in any garden-lovers' glove compartment , offering a detailed map of Lancelot's England
Spectator
In her exhaustive biography, Jane Brown leads us from Brown’s modest beginnings… to his fatal collapse in a Piccadilly street…Her strength is to show, by carefully extrapolating associations and commissions, how Lancelot’s star rose and rose in the crowded firmament of eighteenth-century society
Adrian Brewer, The Tablet
Jane Brown has dug deep into the archives and has written an exhaustive and beautifully illustrated biography that has been long overdue... Those who love his gardens...will be delighted with this book
Andrea Wulf, Mail on Sunday
Revealing the backstory of our best-loved landscapes will open many, newly appreciative, eyes
Stephanie Cross, The Lady
Robust and revealing
Independent
Sympathetic, beautifully illustrated study
Maggie Fergusson, Intelligent Life
The Omnipotent Magician is a valuable work of reference
Anthony Gardner, The Tablet
This informative biography shows [Lancelot Brown's[ achievements were, like the man himself, full of charm
Waterstone's Books Quarterly
This remarkably exhaustive survey is full of intricacies - physical and psychological, financial and geographical. For lovers of abundantly detailed biographies, this tome will not disappoint
Claire Masset, English Garden
Where this book excels is in the writers' impressive untangling of the web of family interconnections betweens Brown's patrons
Timothy Mowl, Times Higher Educational Supplement