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WELL TOMED ALEXANDER THE GREAT English decorator Ben Pentreath has a design studio in London and a country house in an old parsonage in Dorset. It���s the Dorset house I���m dying to see in English Decoration (Ryland Peters & Small, $40). This book covers classic English style, high and low, a bit eccentric, a little bit artless. A must read: Pentreath���s blog at benpentreath.com/ inspiration. Diane Dorrans Saeks Love Looks Not with the Eyes: Thirteen Years with Lee Alexander McQueen by Anne Deniau (Abrams, cloth-cased, $75) is a muchanticipated book for fall. This visual fashion history covers the 13 years when Deniau was the sole photographer allowed backstage to ���lm the before, during and aftermath of McQueen���s emotionally charged runway shows in Paris. His horrifyingly intricate and exacting productions were spectacular and brilliant, and are now articulated into fashion legend. More than 400 pages, the 10���-by-13��� volume has a cover that���s going to grace many a Knoll cocktail table. Holly Moore FROM HERE TO ETERNITY A ward-winning San Francisco architect Andrew Skurman, an unabashed classicist, believes that if one is building a home, ���it���s compelling to think of it lasting for eternity.��� Skurman is known for designing superbly crafted residences inspired by French ch��teaux, Mediterranean villas and Georgian country houses. This is the ���rst monograph from his ���rm, Andrew Skurman Architects. Contemporary Classical: The Architecture of Andrew Skurman (Princeton Architectural Press, $60) contains 256 pages of photographs of more than 20 houses, watercolor studies, and images and plans of the homes��� historical precedents. Especially satisfying is the close examination of the details of his homes ��� the extraordinary craft and authenticity of the work. A member of the Council of Advisors of the National Institute of Classical Architecture and Classical America, Skurman was named a Chevalier of Arts and Letters by the Minister of Culture of France. I don���t cook, but I love reading about food and photos of food. I���ve lunched in the Antwerp castle garden (beneath a ���owering apple tree) with the Vervoordts, so At Home with May and Axel Vervoordt: Recipes for Every Season (Flammarion, $45) is on my reading and gazing list. Their simplicity and artlessness (sort of) is the ultimate sophistication. The book has 107 recipes ��� and lots of garden lunch settings. Swoon. Diane Dorrans Saeks Skurman will be in Houston Wednesday, September 26, 6 pm cocktails, 7 pm lecture and book signing, at a private club. Gratis to members of ICAA/nonmember tickets $10. Others interested, please contact Julie Koch at Elegant Additions, 713.522.0088; juliek@ elegantaadditions.net. If you are unable to attend, and would like an inscribed, signed copy of the book, please e-mail curatebooks@papercitymag. com by September 25. Doris Duke THE WORLD FOR A DUKEDOM One of the most hotly anticipated books by everyone from decorators to Islamic art specialists, Doris Duke���s Shangri La: A House in Paradise (Thomas Mellins and Donald Albrecht, Rizzoli $55) chronicles an architectural masterpiece by celebrated architects Wyeth and King, which was completed in the late ���30s. Duke, dubbed ���the richest girl in the world��� in 1925 when her father died, had legions of lovers and a smaller number of husbands, but she more successfully collected untold treasures to ���ll this vast Mughal mansion. Gathered throughout 60 years of travel and scholarship (objects, not husbands), 3,500 treasures decorate the Mughal Suite, Moroccan Room, Turkish Room, Mughal Gardens, Mihrab Room and Damascus Room. The Play House is a reduced-scale version of the 17th-century Chehel Setun in Esfahan, Iran. In her collection of lovers and husbands, she married twice: ���rst Robert Cromwell, then the famous polo-playing playboy Por���rio Rubirosa ��� and I blush to tell you why he was famous. Tragically, while driving a rented car, she miscalculated her brakeage and lurched forward, crushing her interior designer, Eduardo Tirella, against the massive iron gates of her Newport estate, which they were redecorating. Duke herself died in 1993 from an overdose of doctor-prescribed morphine, but this billionaire tobacco heiress left the design world with a jewel. Holly Moore SEPTEMBER | PAGE 24 | 2012