Search results for ""Author John Brennan""
Lund Humphries Publishers Ltd Scotland's Rural Home: Nine Stories about Contemporary Architecture
Rural Scotland is a charged landscape, alive with history, soaked in myth and often rather sublime. For those of us living an urban existence, the countryside is a retreat for refuge and decompression, but it is also a place where infrastructures strain to reach and in which livings must be made. The countryside is resistant to easy explanation and is thus vulnerable to stereotyping. The nine building stories told in this book show how rural households and communities define themselves, and the role architecture plays in this. Illustrated with beautiful photography and drawings, the projects, from affordable housing on the islands to exquisite renovations of traditional agricultural stock, and all recognised by the Saltire Society’s Housing Design Awards, are visually rich both in themselves and the contexts in which they sit. The houses are set firmly within historic, economic and social contexts and are much more than bolt holes from the urban. Some of our buildings are active participants in rural regeneration and others reflect, in a profound way, what authenticity really means in the countryside. Like architecture everywhere, they present a mirror to a society’s preoccupations and values. However, this is a book too about architecture’s capacity to inspire and endlessly delight.
£49.99
Gill My Name is Jhon
As a child, John Brennan wasn’t an obvious candidate for success. School was a difficult, upsetting place and he was always at the bottom of the class. His battle with dyslexia meant that he felt stigmatised by a society that didn’t understand him. Yet his determination to not be defined by his dyslexia created an ambition that has been matched by his business acumen. Now in his mid-fifties, John’s optimism is still flowing. It is a measure of his character that, on being diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, the first thing he did was to buy a very uncared for Dromquinna Manor on a waterfront estate on 46 acres of overgrown grounds. Ten years later, in the midst of a world pandemic that saw hotels closed all over the world, John again bought a new hotel. This is a fascinating account of a man with the vision to create his own life against the odds that will inspire people everywhere to find their own way too. ‘A great book for parents and young people who are coping with dyslexia that shows them there are a lot of other ways in life.’ Sue Nunn, KCLR FM
£11.99