SHIPS OF HEAVEN: PRIVATE LIFE OF BRITAINS CATHEDRALS (PB)

When Christopher Somerville set out to explore Britain’s cathedrals, he pictured them as great unmoving bastions of tradition. But as he journeyed among favourites old and new, he discovered buildings and communities that have been in constant upheaval for a thousand years. Here are stories of monarchs and bishops, masons and peasant labourers, rogue saints exploited by holy sinners, believers and non-believers, of the towns that grew up in the shadow of the cathedrals, the impact of the Black Death, icon-smashing Puritanism, and much more.