Drayneflete Revealed

Osbert Lancaster's Drayneflete Revealed (1949, published in the US as There'll Always be a Drayneflete 1950), is an illustrated book on architectural style. It takes the form of a parody of an antiquarian study of an imaginary English town's development. This moves from its muddy Saxon origins — the Fleet River is the ancient river that runs in sewers under the City of London— and is profusely illustrated at each turn with Lancaster's caricature architectural views, always showing the same corner of Drayneflete, as it appears through history. Lancaster follows the changing fortunes of the architectural development from village to small city, and wittily captures the foibles and fashions of the inhabitants, all rendered in flawlessly deadpan camp.

Drayneflete Revealed

Osbert Lancaster's Drayneflete Revealed (1949, published in the US as There'll Always be a Drayneflete 1950), is an illustrated book on architectural style. It takes the form of a parody of an antiquarian study of an imaginary English town's development. This moves from its muddy Saxon origins — the Fleet River is the ancient river that runs in sewers under the City of London— and is profusely illustrated at each turn with Lancaster's caricature architectural views, always showing the same corner of Drayneflete, as it appears through history. Lancaster follows the changing fortunes of the architectural development from village to small city, and wittily captures the foibles and fashions of the inhabitants, all rendered in flawlessly deadpan camp.