- Paperback: 880 pages
- Publisher: Penguin; New Ed edition (28 Sep 2000)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0140297952
- ISBN-13: 978-0140297959
- Product Dimensions: 22.4 x 15.5 x 3.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 102,819 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Review
'Masterly, perhaps a masterpiece' Independent Books of the Year
Product Description
Following the huge success of the book last Christmas, comes a new edition of this classic work, in portable trade paperback format. Simon Jenkins travelled the length and breadth of England to select his thousand best churches. Organised by county,each church is described - often with delightful asides - and given a star-rating from one to five. All of the county sections are prefaced by a map locating each church, and lavishly illustrated with colour photos from the Country Life archive. Reviewers and readers alike in their thousands have been delighted by this book.
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First Sentence
Bedfordshire is not a glamorous county, yet there are surprising pleasures off its all-too-beaten tracks. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Bedfordshire is not a glamorous county, yet there are surprising pleasures off its all-too-beaten tracks. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
29 of 34 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is in many ways an excellent book, the photographs wonderful and the writing, as others have commented, very much a la Pevsner at his pithy best. ... brass rhubarb for the unhelpful keyholder at Dorney, Bucks. indeed - marvellous!
I do, however, have three criticisms:
The first is to do with the book's organisation. Given the ever-increasing fluidity of modern administrative boundaries, which ebb and flow seemingly with each successive Local Government Act, why not use ALL the old, historic, pre-1965/1974 county boundaries, still largely adhered to in the Buildings of England series? Granted we are presented with the recently recreated Rutland and Herefordshire, and even the long-departed Huntingdonshire, so why do we still have to suffer that amorphous lump of "Cumbria", or "North Yorkshire", instead of dealing with the three historic ridings, or the indignity of lovely West Riding churches treated under, horror of horrors, Lancashire.
It may be pertinent that Mr Jenkins has seen fit to go by the old counties in southern England but not in the north and that brings me to my second grumble, namely a slight but still discernable southern bias. We all know that Somerset and Norfolk have outstanding church architecture but so too, as Mr J admits himself, does Yorkshire. So why is it that there are so many more entries for the former than for his "N Yorks" section? And as for Northumberland and "Cumbria", so scanty is the coverage I'm left seriously questioning whether his journeyings actually took him up the A1 much past Wetherby.
Quibble three is that, ex-Anglican or not, there is a wee bit too much concentration on the fourth rate C of E to the exclusion of some first rate Catholic and especially Nonconformist buildings. Yes, Cheadle and Walpole and Tewkesbury Old Baptist are there, but I sought in vane for Newbiggin (Durham), the World's oldest Methodist chapel, or Brigflatts or Colthouse Meeting Houses, and where is the National Trust's lovely Loughwood in Devon?
That said, Simon Jenkins has given us a very fine book and I do hope that he may manage a sequel. Might I be so bold as to suggest a companion 1000 covering the other home countries, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, plus the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands? But please, if you're reading this Mr J, can we have Radnorshire and Sutherland and not "Powys" and "Highland"?!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is an excellent survey of English churches. Inevitably there are one or two churches I might have included but this would be nit-picking. It is well written, learned and beautifully illustrated. For anyone interested in the aesthetics, architecture and history of English churches, this is a must buy.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I love this book. I bought it many years ago and treasure it still. I feel alienated by organised religion, but I have a passion for church architecture and the feelings that these churches possess. They're our heritage, our social history, they're art, they appeal to the soul, they're the essence of whatever we are on these isles and Simon Jenkins has recorded them so beautifully and so exactly while maintaining their enigmatic quality. This is a very important record. A very personal record. Even a significant record of our best churches. Thank you Simon Jenkins.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
opened my eyes
I was interested in church architecture as a young man, but had rather got out of the way of it as I got older. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Stephen
Wonderful...
What a splendid reference book. Naturally I was thrilled to see several parish churches of mine included... Read more
Published on 24 July 2006 by J. Hutchings
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