STEEPLE CHASING: Around Britain by Church

A whimsical and elegiac tour, and now featuring a new chapter in this 2023 reprint, never have the joys of exploring churches and cathedrals in our country have been so vividly and lovingly and lyrically portrayed. Deftly capturing a sense of place and history, this song of praise asks us to look at the churches all around us. From The Holy Trinity in Norfolk, home to the 275 year old wax effigy of Sarah Hare, to Somerset and Britain's smallest parish church, we travel from the Angel of the North to Durham Cathedral, see the work of a master mason in Gloucester, a seminary in ruins, the arm-shrine of St Patrick, Belfast, sacred springs in Glastonbury, Ascension Day in Derbyshire and the blessing of the Thames among this travel book with bells on. They contain art and architectural wonders, one huge gallery scattered like a handful of jewels across these isles. Award-winning writer Peter Ross sets out to tell their stories as he visits the unassuming Norfolk church which contains a disturbing secret and London's mighty cathedrals with their histories of fire and love. Along the way we meet cats and bats, monks and druids, angels of oak and steel from the painted hells of Surrey to the holy wells of Wales. 413pp in illustrated paperback.