ship to 3000 members' I will be circulating information on this to all members as soon as possible. Finally, please remember that you have a choice of forms of communicating with me. Please choose whichever is most convenient. My address is as stated on page 3, my phone number is 01761 453047, my fax number is Peoplemoves Peter Beacham, formerly EH Inspector of Historic Buildings for the south-west has been appointed as the Head of Urban Strategies and Listing for English Heritage. This is a new post created by the restructuring of EH after its merger with the RCHME. The post involves working with the Urban Panel which was launched in February and has been set up to examine major development in the historic urban environment. There will be a greater emphasis on urban archaeology. Alan Gardner, technical advisor at the SPAB, is moving into private practice in London. Douglas West from Sovereign Consultancy is replacing him. IanArmit has left Historic Scotland to take up a Senior Lectureship at Queen's University, Belfast. George Lambrick is the new Director of the Council for British Archaeology (CBA), to replace Richard Morris. FURTHER YOURCAREER Your Institute needs your help The IHBC wishes to recruit further helpers for its growing volume of business. Taking an active role in the running of the Institute's affairs will bring the opportunity to broaden your range of contacts and extend your professional network. The TREASURERis seeking help with management of the Institute's accounts, if you are relatively numerate and can handle a computer database, please contact the Treasurer, Robert Parkinson, on 01993 770247 or 01869 249549 or by ema i I at treasurer@ihbc.org. u k Context65 March2000 01761451153 and my e-mail address is membership@ihbc.org.uk If you send attachments to e-mails, I am working under Windows 95 as an operating system and prefer files in WordPerfect format (although I can usually sort out most other formats). Gus Astley Membership Secretary JaneJackson, of Wrekin Council and JHBC Schools Secretary (above), has been appointed as EH Inspector for the York's/ Humberside region. Michael Taylor from Leicester City Council, and IHBC East Midlands Branch Rep, has moved to a new post as a Historic Buildings Inspector for English Heritage East Midlands Region. Ian Smith, formerly Head of Planning at Ryedale DC, has moved to the post of Policy Planner for English Heritage in the York's/Humberside region. Alex Fairclough (nee Faulkner) has moved from Trafford to Macclesfield Council. She is also on the !HBC Education sub-committee. Heather Emery has moved from Macclesfield to Derby Council. Mike Hill, conservation architect at Cotswold District, has now decided to move back into private practice, after ten years in local government, from the beginning of April. He may be contacted on mjhil1@globalnet.co.uk 7bis is new section in Context. Hopefully you will find it useful and inleresting. Ijyou are changing jobs, or know of someone who is, please send details to: editor@ihbc.org.uk IHBCNEWS/BOOKS Bookreviews MEMORIESOF GRACIOUSLIVING The Regency Great House. Edited by Malcolm Airs. University of Oxford Department of Continuing Education. A4softback. Black & white. 132 pages with 100 plates, photographs and drawings. December 1998. ISBN 0903736-28-4. £20. This attractive and informative book takes the production of the rroceedings of Malcolm Airs' series of annual conferences on the great house to new heights by producing the rroceedings in a more rermanent bound format than has been the case in previous years. The glossy paper lends an air of quality to the book and enables the rlates, photographs and drawings to be seen at their best. The introduction informs the reader that the 1998 great house conference moved this chronologically ordered series of conferences forward into the 19'1 ' century and concentrated on the first forty years or so of the century. The term "Regency" was treated in a deliberately vague way and, although the problem of definition exercised some of the speakers, it did not inhibit the breadth of coverage which has become a feature of these annual conferences. The twelve speakers at the conference covered an interesting range of subjects and, as Malcolm Airs writes, there was a greater emphasis on the achievements of Ireland, Scotland and Wales than in previous years. The papers (and speakers) at the conference included Country Lives Compared : The Early Nineteenth Century (Pa u I Langford); Creek and Gothic Country Houses: 77JeImpact of Napoleon (David Watkin); The Regency House in Scotland: The Adam Aftermath (Alistair Rowan); The Regency House in Ireland (Christine Casey); The Villas of John Nash (Geoffrey Tyack); Jane Austen's Houses and Gardens (Mavis Batey); Ancestor Worship (Lucy Abel Smith); The Use of Colour (Ian Bristow); Regency Eclecticism (Neil Burton); Wollaton Hall : Comfort and Security (Pete Smith); Picturesque Moments at Powerscourt - Issues in Estate Management for a Burgeoning Touring Population (Sean O'Reilly); and Keats' House, Hampstead, and the Downshire HallDeuelopment(Sally Jeffery). The twelve different torics, and the breadth of coverage they provide, certainly help to give a good overall understanding of the Regency Period. The different styles of the great houses (and some of their architects) are analysed in England Qohn Nash and Thomas Hopper), Ireland (John Nash and Richard and William Vitruvius Morrison), Scotland (John Paterson, Richard Crichton, Archibald and James Elliot and Richard Gillesrie Graham) and Wales (John Nash). The sheer. range of styles which some of the architects embraced during the period are covered with particular reference to the work of Thomas Hopper in the paper on Regency Eclecticism. The influences on the style of Regency houses are dealt with in the papers on Greek and Gothic Country Houses and Ancestor Worship. There is also much information about the way people lived in their houses, how they decorated them and how they improved and landscaped their gardens or estates. The Powerscourt paper even addresses the effects on both an estate and its locality of public access to the fine landscape features of the estate. An interesting paper addresses the modernising and fortifying of Wollaton Hall both to meet current Jiving standards and to provide security to an owner whose wealth or opinions led to him becoming the target of violent political protest. Finally, the papers on Jane Austen and John Keats provide a link between the subject matter and well know characters of the period. This book provides an excellent record for those who attended the conference and, for those like myself who didn't attend, a fascinating introduction to the period and a resolve to attempt to find the time and money to attend the next of these great house conferences. My only regret is that it was impossible in this black and white production to provide any illustrations to Ian Bristow's paper. Gus Astley 47
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