Opera House Lottery

In this frank account Nicholas Crickhowell relates the full and controversial inside story of the rise and fall of the Cardiff Opera House, a tale of intrigue, double-dealing and back-stabbing, and waste of lottery money. The book explores how it was that an organization which included Michael Heseltine and Virginia Bottomley could have failed to rise to the occasion, and explains how the conduct of prominent political personalities in Cardiff and the attitude of the press contributed to the disaster.

'Who would want to read a book by one of a vanishing breed of old-style Tory peers about a building that never happened, designed by an architect who has never managed to get anything built in the UK? In the case of Opera House Lottery, the devastating tale of the failed attempt to build Zaha Hadid's competition-winning design by Nicholas Crickhowell, former chairman of the Cardiff bay Opera House Trust, the answer should be "everybody"'. Architects' Journal 'For anyone interested in attracting lottery money, or concerned with the tragicomedy of arts funding and public building in Britain, this is both an instructive read and a source of innocent merriment.' RIBA Journal.