Pugin was one of Britain's greatest architects and his short career one of the most dramatic in architectural history. Born in 1812, the son of the soi-disant Comte de Pugin, at 15 Pugin was working for King George IV at Windsor Castle. By the time he was 21 he had been shipwrecked, bankrupted and widowed. Nineteen years later he died, insane and disillusioned, having changed the face and the mind of British architecture.

God's Architect is the first full modern biography of this extraordinary figure. It draws on thousands of unpublished letters and drawings to recreate his life and work as architect, propagandist and romantic artist as well as the turbulent story of his three marriages, the bitterness of his last years and his sudden death at 40. It is the debut of a remarkable historian and biographer.

About the Author
Rosemary Hill is a writer and historian and a trustee of the Victorian Society. She has published widely on 19th and 20th century cultural history and sits on the editorial board of the London Review of Books. From 2004-05 she was a Visiting Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford.

Reviews
a very remarkable book about a very remarkable man * A.N. Wilson *
A magnificent biography, as sumptuous and intricate as anything Pugin built * John Carey *
as the readable biography of a most protean and brilliant man, it is worthy of the best of his buildings * Colm Toibin *
An excellent and detailed biography * Peter Ackroyd *


Awards
Winner of Wolfson Literary Award for History 2008 and Elizabeth Longford Prize for Historical Biography 2008. Short-listed for James Tait Black Memorial Book Prize: Biography 2008.



Book Information
ISBN 9780140280999
Author Rosemary Hill
Format Paperback
Page Count 656
Imprint Penguin Books Ltd
Publisher Penguin Books Ltd
Weight(grams) 450g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 130mm * 30mm