Hugh Thomson

Stormy sees

An ancient route from Southampton to Canterbury is being revived, to celebrate the 800th anniversary of the creation of Becket’s shrine

  • Ships of Heaven: The Private Life of Britain’s Cathedrals

    Christopher Somerville

    Doubleday, pp. 404

There are more than 100 cathedrals in England, Scotland and Wales of many different denominations (although I for one had been previously unaware of the Belarus Autocephalous Orthodox Church). But, wisely, Christopher Somerville focuses on those great galleons with which we are most familiar: the cathedrals that first rose up above the plains of England after 1066.

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