A refugee from Nazi Germany, Nikolaus Pevsner became a central player in the intellectual and cultural life of his adopted country. Almost impossibly energetic, efficient and effective, his contribution both to scholarship and to the public appreciation of art and architecture is immense. In addition to the famous "Buildings in England" series - known commonly as "Pevsner" - he wrote standard textbooks, held professorships, delivered Reith lectures, promoted with equal fervour Victorian and Bauhaus architecture; and for over 25 years from the end of the war was a regular broadcaster for the BBC. Here, principally for the "Third Programme", his talks ranged from a discussion of Breughel's art to the buildings of Gaudi; from a series on Englishmen's castles to meditations on modern town planning; from Elizabethan mannerism to contemporary American architecture.
