In this first U.S. publication of a richly comic classicâ originally published in England in the 1920sâ the pitfalls and vicissitudes of home building are presented in sharp and unforgettable detail, in the form of letters to and from the architectâ a hapless young man named James Spinlove, who, in his valiant attempts to create the Honeywood mansion for Sir Leslie Brash, encounters a motley collection of contractors, surveyors, plumbers and town plannersâ to say nothing of intensely litigious lawyers, and Sir Leslie Brash himself, along with his good lady. There are letters from the subsidiary but crucial characters named Nibnose & Rasper, Mr Snitch, V. Potch and Hoochkoft the surveyor of bricks, among others.