Three Houses is a winsome reminiscence of Angela Thirkell's 1890's childhood, in which she recalls the three houses which shaped her sensibility. Each house insipires her memories of its furniture, gardens, views, and literary associations-including neighbors Samuel Richardson and Rudyard Kipling, her cousin.

First, there is The Grange, where her grandfather, the celebrated pre-Raphaelite painter Sir Edward Burne-Jones, set the cultivated tone enjoyed by family and friends (such as William Morris). Second is her parent's home in Kensington Square where the young Angela was surrounded by a bright world of neighbors and acquaintances. The third, at the heart of Thirkell's reminiscences, is North End House in Rottingdean-the Burne-Jones's seaside retreat. Here, her grandmother was the presiding genius.

Three Houses offers up a childhood world of imaginative license, where the author and her playmates were free to engage in countless flights of fancy. In its deft, confident style-Thirkell's devoted readers will find much that points the way to the fictional world the author would later create in Barsetshire County.