Stepps House is an attractive timber-framed home originally built in the Herefordshire countryside many years ago. But by using it as a prism through which to view not just the house itself but its place in time, Gavin Plumley has created a picture of the past which resonates powerfully with the present. By tracing the many owners through which the house has passed (including – currently – the writer and his husband) Plumley has produced a fascinating hybrid work that combines domesticity, art, memoir and landscape.

This book provides an intriguing way to travel through time: both grand in its sweep and simultaneously intimate in its account of everyday life through the eras.