Beautifully illustrated narrative history of the English country church In his engaging account, Sir Roy Strong celebrates the life of the English parish church From the arrival of the missionaries from Ireland and Rome, to the beautiful architecture and rich spirituality of medieval Catholicism; from the cataclysm of the Reformation, to the gentrified cleric we meet in Jane Austen novels, Roy Strong takes us on a journey - historical, social and spiritual - to explore what men and women experienced through the age when they went to church on Sunday. ‘Anyone with the slightest interest in the English parish church, of its life today, or its history will be intrigued, informed and enchanted by this lucid, and occasionally provocative, account’ Country Life

This analytical catalogue of sculpture from the historic counties of Devon, Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire provides a new perspective on the artistic achievement of the late Saxon kingdom. The volume includes individual pieces of the highest quality such as the Bradford-on-Avon and Winterbourne Steepleton angels or the newly discovered figures from Congresbury. Most of the monuments were carved at a time when Wessex art was at its zenith in the tenth and eleventh centuries, a formative period for English cultural identity. This volume sets the sculpture within an historical, topographical and art-historical context, highlighting the close links with contemporary styles in manuscripts and metalwork. Full photographic records of each monument present many new illustrations unique to this volume. An indispensable research tool for all those interested in the early medieval world, this volume is also an authoritative aid for local historians.

The unexpectedly entertaining story of how the Church of England lost its place at the centre of English public life - now updated with new material by the authors including comments on the book's controversial first publication. The Church of England still seemed an essential part of Englishness, and even of the British state, when Mrs Thatcher was elected in 1979. The decades which followed saw a seismic shift in the foundations of the C of E, leading to the loss of more than half its members and much of its influence. In England today 'religion' has become a toxic brand, and Anglicanism something done by other people. How did this happen? Is there any way back? This 'relentlessly honest' and surprisingly entertaining book tells the dramatic and contentious story of the disappearance of the Church of England from the centre of public life. The authors – religious correspondent Andrew Brown and academic Linda Woodhead – watched this closely, one from the inside and one from the outside. That Was the Church, That Was shows what happened and explains why.

The visual heritage of Northern Yorkshire in the pre-Conquest period is revealed in this addition to the Corpus series. This volume surveys the sculpture in the historic North Riding of Yorkshire (excluding those parts covered in Volume three).