I had been tipped off that a very enjoyable conversation I had a couple of weeks ago with John Goodall, the architectural editor of Country Life would go live today on the podcast he does more normally with Clive Aslet. It is now online on https://www.ypompod.com/. John is wonderfully well informed about all aspects of country houses, including their medieval history, and I hope it makes for lively Christmas listening, covering all aspects of the origins of both Castle Howard and Blenheim, how they came about and the nature of the relationship between the circumstances of their commission and the character of their design. Also, quite a bit at the end about Vanbrugh’s influence on Bob Venturi and Denise Scott Brown.