Knole (Kent)

National Trust Guidebooks

by Robert Sackville-West

The National Trust cares for the finest collection of historic buildings, gardens, parks, landscape and coastline in the world. Its famous and well-respected series of guidebooks provides the essential companion to your visit and a lasting souvenir of the experience. And now you can buy the guide before your visit.

Authoritative texts and superb illustrations illuminate the history of the place and tell the stories of the people who have lived and worked there.

96 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2006

Reviews

[Eoin O'Callaghan]

Visited Knole twice this summer (the second visit for a tour of the gardens which are not normally open), and decided to follow up with some related reading on Wolfe and Sackville-West and writing by both authors as well as a further exploration of the house which I've always found, to be honest rather odd! This small book definitely enlightens understanding of the development of the house, and why it feels more like a town than a house. Also helps to absorb the extensive contents of the house which can be overwhelming on a visit.

[Karen-Leigh]

The National Trust cares for the finest collection of historic buildings, gardens, parks, landscape and coastline in the world. Its famous and well-respected series of guidebooks provides the essential companion to your visit and a lasting souvenir of the experience. And now you can buy the guide before your visit.

Authoritative texts and superb illustrations illuminate the history of the place and tell the stories of the people who have lived and worked there.

[Emily]

A look inside Knole, the ancestral home of the Sackville family, including Vita Sackville-West. It has a legendary 7 courtyards, 52 staircases, and 365 rooms. There are photos, and best of all, a floor plan. Since reading this book is the most I'll get to see of Knole without visiting in person, I would have liked this book to be even longer, with even more photos. I'd love to find out more about the smaller rooms, utilitarian places, and other behind-the-scenes places not considered to be worth showing. If Knole has 365 rooms, I only got to "see" about 20 of them. I enjoyed reading the history of the home's various occupants, from Archbishop Bourchier to Henry VIII to the Sackvilles. This guidebook is a great non-fiction tie-in to Virginia Woolf's novel Orlando, which is said to be a love letter to Knole, and which I found to be enchanting and witty.