A British house is very often an old one. A large share of the housing stock was built before the Second World War, much of it with solid walls, suspended timber floors and open chimneys, and nearly all of it has since been altered, insulated, rewired and repainted by several generations of owners. Most of what there is to know about looking after one follows from that.
The subjects fall into three groups. The fabric of the house: keeping heat in, keeping damp out, and the few real hazards that older buildings contain. Its decoration: paint, and the colours and finishes that are coming back into use. And its furnishing, room by room, from the mattress to the office chair.