{"title":"Val Bott","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"hogarth-s-house-book-val-bott-9781857597547","title":"Hogarth's House","description":"Hogarth's House is the former country home of the 18th century English artist William Hogarth. The 18th century house was William Hogarth s 'little country box'. It was the artist's country retreat from 1749 until his death in 1764 and has been a museum in his memory since 1904. Rescued from the threat of redevelopment in 1900 by a local benefactor, it has also survived bomb damage in 1940 and a fire in 2009. A major project during 2009-11 has seen the entire structure carefully restored. Past studies have concentrated on the period from 1749 to 1764 when Hogarth lived there. New research makes it possible to imagine the life of his widow, Jane, who kept the house on, with his sister and her cousin, Mary Lewis. The family's connections with the House continued until May Lewis' death in 1808. The first occupant, from 1717, was a Lutheran pastor, George Andreas Ruperti, who worked tirelessly to support thousands of refugees from the Rhineland who came to London en route for America, after a famine in 1708-9. Like the Hogarths, he used the house as his country home. Nineteenth century residents included Henry Francis Cary, a skilled poet and translator of Dante who was at the heart of a circle of poets and writers, and Brayvo Hicks, a melodramatic actor, who retired to Chiswick in the 1860s.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49531429126417,"sku":"GOR004994139","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49749544730897,"sku":"GOR007643385","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1857597540.jpg?v=1751186039"},{"product_id":"gunnersbury-park-book-val-bott-9781785511325","title":"Gunnersbury Park","description":"Exploring this much-loved public park reveals its story. In the Middle Ages, Gunnersbury belonged to the powerful mistress of a medieval king. Prosperous Tudor merchants and City aldermen followed; its first transformation saw the building of a huge Palladian mansion with formal gardens around 1660. After years of neglect it was reborn as a centre of Georgian society; a merchant politician and art collector and then a Hanoverian princess each softened the landscape and built follies. In 1800 the mansion was demolished and development plots sold off; two neighbouring villas emerged which still survive. From 1835 one was home to the banking family who eventually reunited the estate, and this building is now the Gunnersbury Park Museum. Gunnersbury was opened as a public park in 1926. This book marks the completion of the recent and extensive conservation programme - its 21st century transformation - in the lead-up to the Park centenary.  Published to coincide with the Gunnersbury Park Museum's reopening in spring\/summer 2018. Gunnersbury Park receives 30,000-40,000 visitors per year, and this is expected to rise to as many as 1 million visitors per year after the renovation and conservation programme is completed.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49544704950545,"sku":"GOR010110572","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1785511327.jpg?v=1751420860"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/en-gb\/collections\/author-books-by-val-bott.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}