Clive Aslet

Welcome to my page.

I’ve always been a writer and journalist, and for 13 years I used to edit the British magazine Country Life. My most recent project is Triglyph Books: the photographer Dylan Thomas and I set it up to publish illustrated books to the highest standard, starting with Old Homes, New Lives: the Resurgence of the British Country House. It celebrates 12 fabulous country houses, asking what such places mean in the 21st century and what they’re like to live in. Such fun to do – and amazing to think of us travelling around the country, visiting glorious places in complete freedom, in those pre-Covid days!

Over nearly 40 years I’ve written many books, particularly on architecture, the countryside and British life – you’ll see some of them here, with luck. My first was The Last Country Houses for Yale University Press, reissued a few years ago as The Edwardian Country House (Frances Lincoln).

Yale also published The American Country House. I’m delighted that they have now asked me to write The Story of the Country House which I am just finishing. In September 2020, Little Brown will publish The Real Crown Jewels of England, inspired by the fire at Notre-Dame in Paris – about 100 places that we would really miss if suddenly they weren’t to exist anymore.

My first novel, The Birdcage, was published by Cumulus (hardback, 2014) and Sandstone Press (paperback, 2016). I’m married, we live in London and Ramsgate and we have three children, aged form 19 to 25.

Thank you to veteran broadcaster David Dimbleby for describing my writing as ‘charming, erudite, amusing...His energy, enthusiasm and learning, always lightly worn, are prodigious.’