Mayo-based author's new book explores the real Houses of Guinness

THE Houses of Guinness - The Lives, Homes and Fortunes of the Great Brewing Dynasty is the title of a new book by Mayo-based Adrian Tinniswood.

Tinniswood, who lives in Erris, is one of the foremost writers and historians of the country home and his new book is an entertaining and visually arresting new history of the Guinness family and their homes.

Among the homes explored is Ashford Castle in south Mayo.

The new Netflix epic ‘House of Guinness’, a saga of one of Europe’s most enduring dynasties, has captured viewers attention and imaginations across Ireland and the world. Now the wonderful homes and settings of the Guinness family in Ireland and the UK are now fully explored by gifted writer and historian Adrian Tinniswood.

In The Houses of Guinness, bestselling author Tinniswood explores the histories of the legendary Guinness family - brewers, philanthropists and socialites - through their mansions and town houses.

His tour opens the door to Irish palaces like Farmleigh (where the Edwardian ballroom is said to have a floor made from barrels brought from the brewery) and Luggala in the Wicklow Mountains, to Ashford Castle, Beaumont House, Luttrellstown Castle and 80 St. Stephens Green - now known as Iveagh House, home to the Department of Foreign Affairs.

Unravelling the stories of more than a dozen great Guinness houses, Tinniswood reveals what life was like for a dynasty that rose from ordinary beginnings in Georgian Dublin to become one of the most powerful families in Ireland and Britain.

This engaging and accessible history features new and archival photographs and paintings that illuminate the writing.

The family’s British houses - including Elveden, which has featured in the series The Crown, and the now public owned Kenwood House - also feature in this lavishly illustrated and comprehensively described work of history, architecture and cultural commentary.

Adrian Tinniswood, OBE FSA, is a true chronicler of the country houses of the UK and Ireland, having published 19 books on social and architectural history. His many acclaimed titles include The Long Weekend: Life in the English Country House Between the Wars, a New York Times and Sunday Times bestseller, and The Verneys: a True Story of Love, War and Madness in Seventeenth-Century England, which was shortlisted for the BBC/Samuel Johnson Prize.

Tinniswood is currently Professor of British Cultural History at the University of Buckingham.