This volume traces the development of the British architectural practice ABK (Ahrends, Burton and Koralek), from early landmark projects like the Berkeley Library at Trinity College, Dublin to the British Embassy in Moscow. It also tells the full story behind the most notorious British architectural episode of the 1980s - how ABK won the commission to design an extension to the National Gallery in London, only to have it taken away from them when Prince Charles described the scheme as a "monstrous carbuncle".