Britain's Holiest Places [Paperback]

This book is an excellent book for both the arm chair reader and the explorer on foot. In fact there is something for everyone. The detail and study that the author has clearly spent time researching pays off the moment you start to read it. The book has drawn me to explore some local churches that I had not been to but better still I have been able to read about places that I am unlikely to get to for many years and learn about them not from traditional guide book that lacks the human touch and inability to express the sheer sense of God. This guide book does just that, it expresses the sense of God and in a increasing secular world I say AMEN to that!
The reader can appreciate from a real person who has (as Mr Mayhew states) sat in the churches and holy places and prayed. Perhaps that part alone makes this book unique, exciting and inspirational! To be fair we loved it so much we bought three copies of the books, one to keep and two that we have given away. The recipients of the other books have also said 'what a fun book the detail in the indexes of how to rate a holy place inspires me to visit, read and then make my own mind up!' The other who lives abroad has simply enjoyed reading about some of Britain's finest churches and cathedrals and is now planning to visit to see some in 2012! They have been inspired and have changed their holiday plans because of this book!
Well done Mr Mayhew,your an author that we will definitely keep an eye out for future plublications!
Jenny and John Challis

At over 500 full colour pages, a labour of love over a five year journey, Britain's Holiest Places covers a huge range of sites from inspiring cathedrals, through Quaker meeting houses to hidden holy wells. Each holy place is described, photographed and rated from both a practical and ecumenical spiritual perspective. Clear directions are provided as well as useful details like GPS coordinates, very handy for the more obscure spots.

This is more than a simple guide book; Nick's style draws the reader in. The descriptions of each location weave together the historical and numinous preparing the visitor not so much for an interesting architectural diversion, but an experience of the spiritual essence of the place:

"The hard black walls of the nave, worn smooth by the passing of centuries, have echoed with the voices of a Christian community each Sunday for the past 1,000 years. And the huge oaks themselves would have been around 1,000 years old when they were felled. They might have been acorns and saplings at the time Jesus was born ... Much has been added and modified at Greensted's church during a millennium of worship - but the heart of oak continues to beat."

St. Andrew's church in Greensted (9 Stars), resting place of St. Edmund, and now an irresistible pilgrimage destination. 'There is no sanitisation of Christianity's troubled history. Oxford's Martyrs' monument is here (5 Stars), but Hugh Latimer's own complicity in the death of John Forrest is acknowledged. It is the puritan bullet holes in the statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary which are described as `her wounds, the most eloquent monument of all in Oxford'.

A respectful realism that permeates the text; origin and authenticity are both carefully weighed, especially of the relics of saints. There is both joy and sadness at times, but little sign of the over romanticism that can plague popullar British church history.

Sitting on a coffee table it is tempting to pick up the book, open at a random page and make a new discovery. You might then miss the appendix which offers guidelines for the spiritual encounter, reflections on the communion of saints and spiritual exercises for pilgrims at shrines and wells. Churched or un-churched, I would not hesitate to buy this book for anyone, whatever their spirituality. The only wish for a second edition might be the inclusion of more maps, but a good GPS device or basic smartphone is all that is needed to find your way.

As someone who considers Richard Dawkins to be a bit too soft on religion I might not be seen as the typical reader of a book on Britain's holiest places.

However, you cannot and should not ignore the social and cultural influences of Christianity on this country. It's an integral part of our history. From my secular perspective, this book provides an excellent and comprehensive guide to sites that are of interest to anyone with a love of art, architecture and history. It's well written and beautifully photographed. Any book that convinces me that Barking is worth a visit is impressive indeed.