Downton Shabby: One American’s Ultimate DIY Adventure Restoring His Family’s English Castle

In this marvelous debut, film producer DePree leaves the Hollywood hills to resurrect his British ancestral home, a 50,000-square-foot estate in the English countryside. After losing his grandfather and father in the span of two years, DePree found solace in tracing his family genealogy. He was astonished when, in 2013, while perusing the internet, he stumbled upon Hopwood Hall, the real-life 600-year-old castle that often featured in his Pap’s childhood stories. During the inaugural pilgrimage with his mother and family to see it in person (“Even under clouds,” he writes of the lovingly dubbed “Downton Shabby,” “it was a magical sight”), DePree counted 2,710 small windows that needed repair. Determined to save the dilapidated and empty estate from ruin—despite having no construction experience—he sold his Los Angeles home and, over the next four years, dedicated his life to a daunting renovation (“It was like the hall and I had been dating, and now it was time for me to... put a ring on her finger”). While his self-deprecating humor about the challenges of navigating grants—and being somewhat clueless about English culture—entertain, it’s his wonderment following some unexpected help from the community that makes this DIY fairy tale a true delight. Readers are in for a treat. (May)