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Arbiter of Elegance

by Roderick Graham

ISBN: 9781841588025
Imprint: Birlinn
Publication Date: Oct 2009
Format: Hardback
Price: £25.00
Stock Status: in stock

'Comprehensive and vivid,' - Sunday Herald

'Absorbing and intelligent ... Robert Adam is blessed in his biographer,’ - Candia McWilliam

’Fills a shameful gap with diligence and – like Adam’s work itself – with flashes of unexpected colour,’ - Daily Express

No one contributed more to the artistic eminence of ‘Age of Elegance’ than Robert Adam (1728–92), the pre-eminent architect of his day whose expertise and imagination extended also to interior design, furniture and garden design. His legacy has echoed through design ever since, his name synonymous with elegance, the Enlightenment, of the best features of the eighteenth century.

In this fascinating biography, Roderick Graham follows Adam’s life and career from schooldays in Edinburgh through study in Italy and the establishment of his architectural practice in London. It explains his passionate ambition, not only to excel as an architect, but to be accepted as a gentleman in that most snobbish period of our history.

Roderick Graham was educated at the Royal High School of Edinburgh and Edinburgh University before serving with the Royal Army Education Corps as Staff Officer (Education) East Africa Command. He subsequently enjoyed a long and varied career in television and radio as a writer, freelance director and producer, and worked for a period as Head of Drama for BBC TV Scotland. He is the author of the critically acclaimed John Knox: Democrat (Hale, 2001), The Great Infidel: A Life of David Hume and An Accidental Tragedy: The Life of Mary, Queen of Scots (both published by Birlinn). He lives in Edinburgh.

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