Steeple Chasing: Around Britain by Church

By Peter Ross (Author)
Format: Paperback / softback 432 pages
Publisher: Headline Publishing Group
Imprint: Headline Book Publishing
ISBN: 9781472281951
Published: 1 Feb 2024
Weight: 384g

Churches are all around us. Their steeples remain landmarks in our towns, villages and cities, even as their influence and authority has waned.

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, and through them a story of Britain. Join him as he visits the unassuming Norfolk church which contains a disturbing secret, and London's mighty cathedrals with their histories of fire and love.

Meet cats and bats, monks and druids, angels of oak and steel. Steeple Chasing, though it sometimes strikes an elegiac note, is a song of praise. It celebrates churches for their beauty and meaning, and for the tales they tell.

It is about people as much as place, flesh and bone not just flint and stone. From the painted hells of Surrey to the holy wells of Wales, consider this a travel book with bells on. 

'A delightful book.' - The Guardian

Fascinating . . . Ross makes a likeably idiosyncratic guide and one finishes the book feeling strangely optimistic about the inevitable.' - The Observer

'The author's humanity has acted as a beacon of light in the darkness.' - The Sunday Times

The Sunday Times paperback bestseller and Waterstones Non-Fiction Book of the Month

'A wonderful book; thoughtful and challenging' - Daily Telegraph