Susie West

Dr Susie West is most interested in the English country house, its contents and landscapes, and particularly how the English country house was designed and used from 1600-1830. As an architectural historian, she investigates the relationship between buildings as design objects and as spaces for living. Her specialism is the library room within the country house, and the relationship of collections of books to the emergence of specially-designed rooms to house them, particularly from 1660. Penshurst Place, Kent, is the ancestral home of Sir Philip Sidney and his relations who contributed to the English literary Renaissance: Susie West has worked on the the great house, its rooms full of books, and the creative circle of writers inspired by their environment. She is currently researching Sir Philip Sidney’s niece, Lady Mary Wroth, who is well known as an author but may also have been the architect of her own house.

After working for English Heritage as a Senior Properties Historian, she joined the department of art history at The Open University in 2007. She has contributed to the current modules A105 Voices, Text and Material Culture, A226 Art and Visual Culture, and the MA in Art History.

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