Welcome to the Charles Rennie Mackintosh Society.

Book Reviews

We have listed below a selection of books on the work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh. To make it easier for you to find the right book we have indicated whether it is: for the general reader, for students, for academics and for those with a specialist interests.

New books are brought out regularly and we welcome your comments.

Charles Rennie Mackintosh

Richard Tames 2000
Published by Heinemann, Oxford
Paperback
£8.50

Review by Emma Booth, Age 11
I think this book is appropriate for 9 years and older. The text is not hard to read and there is a glossary if you are stuck with any words. It also has an index and a contents page if you can’t find something you want. If you just want to see when something happened you could just look at the timeline at the back of the book. There are lots of colourful pictures of his work and there are sketches too. The front cover is nice, but I think the back cover should have a little picture of something. Overall I think the book is good and I don’t think it needs any improvements. I would give it 8 out of 10.


Charles Rennie Mackintosh - Architect, Icon, Artist

John McKean & Colin Baxter 2000
Published by Lomond Books, Edinburgh
Hardback
£10.00
ISBN: 0947782087

Review by Anne Ellis, Helensburgh
This is a generous book, modestly priced, adequately proportioned, well illustrated, and beautifully written. Professor McKean's eloquent text is perceptive. intuitive, almost poetic in places. It certainly adds flashes of insight and understanding. As to solving the eternal enigma, perhaps that is too big a task to deal with. Excerpt from Society Journal No. 80.


Charles Rennie Mackintosh (World of Art Series)

Alan Crawford, 1995
Published by Thames and Hudson Ltd
Paperback
ISBN: 0500202834

Review by Margaret, Glasgow
This book is a fantastic introduction to Charles Rennie Mackintosh, the man, the architect, the artist. Alan Crawford sets out his stall in the foreword to challenge what he sees as the “Mackintosh myth” and instead addresses the facts of the artist’s life and works and, crucially, the nature of his collaboration with his wife Margaret. Clearly written, generously illustrated with a very useful chronology of Mackintosh buildings and interiors. (“deserves to become a standard, essential text” - The Spectator)


Charles Rennie Mackintosh Architectural Sketches

Edited by Pamela Robertson 1999
Published by Hunterian Art Gallery, University of Glasgow
ISBN: 0904254712

Review by Stuart, Inverkip
Mackintosh sketched from his youth until, in his late forties, painting came to dominate his artistic output. He travelled extensively in Scotland and England during the 1890s and early 1900s with one very significant trip abroad on a studentship to Italy in 1891. His drawings were private and rarely exhibited or published in his lifetime. These informal pencil studies, executed free from the constraints of academic supervision, are amongst the earliest works to show his developing individuality. This beautiful volume gives us an insight into the working methods of Scotland's most celebrated architect and designer.


Glasgow’s Hidden Treasures Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s Ingram Street Tearooms

Published by Glasgow City Council (Museums)
Paperback
ISBN: 0 902752 72 3

Review by Margaret, Glasgow
Glasgow City Council owns one of the city’s hidden treasures – the last surviving suite of tearoom interiors designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh for Miss Cranston’s Ingram Street Tearooms. The tearooms are currently in store, and Glasgow Museums is researching what would be needed to restore them all for public display. This lavishly illustrated book provides a preview.


Mackintosh's Masterwork: The Glasgow School of Art

Edited by William Buchanan, First Published in 1989 Reprinted in 2004
Published by A & C Black/The Glasgow School of Art
Hardback
ISBN: 0713664924

Review by David Morrell, USA
This is an amazing book dedicated to The Glasgow School of Art. The line drawings and cross sections detailed within help to further explain the wonderful engineering and design of the building. I bought this in paperback at GSA's gift shop for only £20.00!


Speculations on an Architectural Language

Published by Charles Rennie Mackintosh Society
Paperback
ISBN: 978-0-9557781-0-0

This new publication, based around the exhibition drawings, offers a unique opportunity to see some of Mackintosh’s drawings for the first time. The contributors have responded to the drawings, giving a personal insight into Mackintosh’s creative development, which should stimulate lots of useful debate.

Review by David, Glasgow
Whilst none of the writers questions Mackintosh’s importance or significance, their thoughts provide a broader critique. In that respect you could say Mackintosh scholarship has moved beyond the man to his wider context, spanning roughly a century either side.

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