JO JORDAN Beyond Dragons ***

This self-published book was on sale where Rachel and I were holidaying. The complex of cottages (or barns) is owned by Jo Jordan, the author of the book. Normally I'd give this sort of thing a miss, but the barns and Jo's own house are so fabulous, beautiful, quirky and utterly unique I thought I'd give it a try as it promised to fill in the story behind the amazing architecture. And it succeeds. What's more Jo turns out to be a fantastic writer.

Jo and her husband Nick, who sadly died early in 2021, were travellers with a magpie instinct. When Nick inherited Belle Grove, his parents' rundown farm in Suffolk he and Jo were determined to build something unique - a grand design full of bits and pieces from India, Bali, and North and East Africa - not to mention car boot sales and salvage yards.

It was a self-build too, over the space of five years, and they managed to do it for less than £300,000! 

To help fund it they converted the outbuildings into holiday lets. These 'barns' were early 1950s rebuilds of sheds destroyed by a wartime bomb. Government payments at the time required that they be rebuilt on the original footprint and for their original use - even though they were redundant when they'd been destroyed. But today these buildings look as if they've been there for hundreds of years - thanks to cladding with old timber, re-roofing with old tiles, and the use of ancient timbers inside. To complete the effect all the light switches are the classic brown bakelite.

Since completion the house has won architectural awards and the holiday barns have been named holiday let of the year.

Would anyone who hasn't stayed at Belle Grove be interested in this book? Probably not, unless they have a passion for self-builds and quirky architecture. But I really enjoyed it. The only criticism is the quality of the numerous black and white photographs which too often are like black and dark-grey postage stamps.