A comprehensive pocket-sized guide to domestic architectural styles and movements. How to Read Houses is an insider's guide to recognising and appreciating the diversity of domestic architecture that reflects the location, the fashion, and the technological savoir-faire of the age - from Tudor timber-frames to the truly unconventional. Compact enough to travel with you yet comprehensive enough to provide real answers, with real examples, this handy reference guide: - Provides an understanding of the architectural vocabulary along with the visual clues that identify any house style and its historical context - Enhances the appreciation of visits to landmark houses and lays the foundations for an architectural exploration of your own home or area - Explores the main architectural styles, as well as the materials and components of a house, through beautifully rendered illustrations, photographs of classic examples and the words of a friendly expert - Features twenty famous UK houses in detail, many of which are National Trust and open to the public, as well as other iconic and interesting houses from around Europe and the rest of the world.