The House That Berry Built
First edition cover
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| Author | Dornford Yates |
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| Cover artist | J. F. Campbell |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Series | The Berry Books |
| Genre | Semi-Autobiographical Comic novel |
| Publisher | Ward Lock & Co |
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Publication date
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1945 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback) |
| Pages | 286 pp |
| Preceded by | And Berry Came Too |
| Followed by | The Berry Scene |
The House That Berry Built is a humorous semi-autobiographical novel by Dornford Yates published in 1945 by Ward Lock & Co of London. It is a fictional recreation of the construction of the author's house, Cockade, in the commune of Eaux-Bonnes, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, France.
This novel is from Yates' series of 'Berry Books', featuring Berry Pleydell, his relatives and close friends. It is the seventh in the series, all of which are period comedy-thrillers; however, where the earlier books in the series were made up of short stories, this is the second full-length novel, following Adele & Co. The House That Berry Built charts the Pleydell family's decision to sell White Ladies, their ancestral home in Hampshire, England, and move to Pau, in the South of France. Unable to afford their aristocratic lifestyle in England, and unhappy at social upheavals following the end of World War I, they take refuge in the South of France where they believe traditional values have not yet disappeared. Nostalgic for a vanished world of social events and elegant idleness, Berry and his friends spend their time driving their Rolls and picnicking on the slopes of the Valley of Ossau.
Wearied by the daily return journey from their residence at Pau, they decide to acquire some land on the green mountainside, halfway between the thermal spa of Lally and the village of Besse. Much of the novel is a thinly-veiled account of the building of 'Cockade', the writer's own residence between Eaux-Bonnes and Aas in 1938-9 (IKD).
In the novel, the house is called 'Gracedieu', and like its real-life equivalent it is constructed on a monumental built terrace anchored in the rock and is called "Le Château" by the people of the country.
Although it also contains a relatively minor sub-plot regarding the family's investigation of the murder of Sir Steuart Rowley, the novel's principal focus is upon an exceptionally precise description of the building of 'Gracedieu'. The cost of the work, the risks of the construction techniques employed, the whims of the mountain weather, the relations with the local contractor are all carefully detailed.
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Wikipedia