A.N. Wilson

The English were never an overtly religious lot

Undeterred, Peter Ackroyd takes us on a breezy tour of the nation’s religious history, from the Venerable Bede to the present

A 12th-century miniature painting though to be of the Venerable Bede. [Getty Images] 
issue 24 February 2024

Generalisations about national characteristics are open to question. Nevertheless, the overwhelming impression one gets from reading the major works of English literature, or from studying the famous English men and women of politics, the military or the academic world, is that the English have not been an especially religious lot.

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