Cultural historian Gavin Plumley’s first book is a hybrid of domestic history and European art, of memoir and landscape writing. It tells how, having taken the huge plunge, as a committedly urban man, of buying Stepps House- a house in Pembridge, Herefordshire- he came to realise it might be far older than he had been led to believe. Tracing the story of the house through different hands and eras, he finds a picture that resonates powerfully with our present.  Gavin is a frequent guest on BBC radio, writes for newspapers and magazines worldwide and regularly talks in leading museums and art galleries. He will be in conversation with novelist Patrick Gale.