Nick Mayhew-Smith

This is a beautiful book, part travel guide, part pilgrim manual. Its scope is simple yet comprehensive, a travel guide to the Christian holy places in Britain. It is unashamedly subjective, and necessarily so. However, the subjectivity is part of the book's charm, including the star ratings based on strict criteria (with bonus stars if the author felt the place particularly spiritual). The book is divided into broad regions, subdivided into counties, with each place given from half a page to two pages write up, with beautiful pictures of each site. The author visits each place and gives up-to-date descriptions and directions (including GPS coordinates). The anecdotal style is full of charming asides, such as "two ladies I met cleaning the church had never heard of the well" and "...her holy well, scene of so many healing miracles. There is now an NHS walk-in centre directly underneath". Flipping back and forth through this well produced and well indexed labour of love, makes one want to hit the local pilgrim trail, kiss the part-hidden shrines of our obscure saints and take a dip into the cold millponds that were the places of baptism and healing for the first Christians of these islands.… (meer)