James Maude Richards was born in 1907, at Ladypath, Park Lane, Carshalton, Surrey. His father, Louis Saurin Richards, was a solicitor, and his mother, Lucy Denes (née Clarence), was born in Ceylon, now Sri Lanka.[1] Educated at Gresham's School, Holt, and Cambridge University, he trained as an architect at the Architectural Association.
But his main career was as a writer on architecture. As well as publishing many books, he served as editor of the Architectural Review from 1937 to 1971, the longest period in office of any of its editors.
He had a short, unhappy marriage to artist Peggy Angus, with whom he had a daughter, Victoria, and a son Angus. The couple married in 1936 and divorced in 1948. In 1954, he married Kit Lewis, also an artist; the couple had one son.[3]
"Towards a Rational Aesthetic: An Examination of the Characteristics of Modern Design with Particular Reference to the Influence of the Machine," in Architectural Review 77 (1935): 211-18.
High Street (Country Life, 1938) with illustrations by Eric Ravilious
An Introduction to Modern Architecture (Penguin Books, 1940, revised 1953 and 1963) ISBN0-14-020061-4
The Castles on the Ground (Architectural Press, 1946), 2nd edn with subtitle The Anatomy of Suburbia (John Murray, 1973) ISBN0-7195-2908-5
Functional Tradition in Early Industrial Buildings (Architectural Press, 1958) ISBN0-85139-226-1
Miniature History of the English House (Architectural Press, 1960) ISBN0-85139-389-6
Kelly, Jessica (2015). "Vulgar modernism: J.M. Richards, modernism, and the vernacular in British architecture," Architectural History, Vol.58, pp. 229–259
Kelly, Jessica (2016). "To Fan the Ardour of the Layman: The Architectural Review, The MARS Group and the Cultivation of Middle Class Audiences for Modernism in Britain, 1933-1940," Journal of Design History, Vol.29(4), pp. 350–365
