The Honeywood file - H. B. Creswell

In this richly comic classic, first published in the 1920s, the pitfalls and vicissitudes of home building are presented in sharp and unforgettable detail, in the form of letters to and from the architect, a hapless young man named James Spin-love, who, in his valiant attempts to create the Honeywood mansion for Sir Leslie Brash, encounters a motley collection of contractors, surveyors, plumbers and town planners, to say nothing of intensely litigious lawyers, and Sir Leslie Brash himself, along with his good lady. This book follows the rich tradition of wry English humour. It also contains a great deal of valuable and still pertinent information about building a house.