By Simon Jenkins
Journalist Simon Jenkins must have visited well over 1000 churches to come up with the top picks! In this comprehensive book, his table of contents is organized by county, not only because of geographic convenience but also because characteristics like local building materials and decoration tend to be defined by a region or county. Each county's section opens with a map showing locations of each church. While many are town churches and some are typical Norman churches with square towers, most are Church of England, though Jenkins also covers a couple of quaker meeting houses and other non-Anglican houses of worship. Jenkins declines to include the more famous cathedrals as he feels they receive adequate coverage in other travel publications; instead he concentrates on those churches that characterize a town or county. He names significant historical characters associated with each church (where applicable) and those buried within. Nice photos accompany many of the descriptions.
Preceding the 800 pages of descriptive text is a fascinating introduction describing the various stages of development of the English church, as well as a glossary of mostly architectural terms, notes about accessibility of the churches, and other helpful information.
A cover recommendation states, "Think of Simon Jenkins's book as a hip flask and carry it always".
While the book (close to 900 pages, including introductory material) wouldn't fit in my pocket or purse, it is a very helpful reference book and I would certainly include it in my suitcase on a trip through England. I look forward to investigating many of these churches, tributes to the builders' faith and witness to their lives and history.
No comments:
Post a Comment