'Gothic For Ever' A.W.N. Pugin, Lord Shrewsbury, and the Rebuilding of Catholic England

A.W.N. Pugin (1812-1852) was the foremost propagandist of the nineteenth-century Gothic Revival, whose aim was the restoration of the ancient splendours of the Catholic Church. Turning this vision into reality required a wealthy and influential patron, and Pugin found one in John Talbot (1787-1852), sixteenth earl of Shrewsbury and England's leading Catholic layman. Impressed by Pugin's talent and enthusiasm, and by his devotion to the Church, Lord Shrewsbury provided Pugin with the means and the opportunities he needed, in and around his ancestral Staffordshire estate - Alton Towers.The Pugin/Shrewsbury partnership was arguably the most successful and creative of its kind in Victorian Britain, drawing the attention of scholars, artists and architects from all over the country and from overseas. The buildings themselves, and the close relationship between earl and architect, and their wider significance in the context of the Gothic and Catholic Revivala, are examined in detail in this beautifully illustrated book which has been published to mark the 200th anniversary of Pugin's birth.