BRITAIN'S HOLIEST PLACES

ISBN-13: 978-0-9544767-4-8
Writer: Nick Mayhew Smith
Title: Britain’s Holiest Places
Subttile: The all-new guide to 500 sacred sites
Language: English
Place of Publication: Bristol
Publisher: Lifestyle Press Ltd
Year of Publication: 2011
Format: 186x235mm (trimmed)
Pages:544; Further Reading, 538; Index, 539
Illustrations: Numerous colour plates, pictures and maps
Front Cover Photo: St Herbert’s Isle, Derwentwater in Cumbria
Cover Design: VWW Design
Binding: Paperback in colour printed wrappers
Weight: 1,258gr.
Original Price: GBP 19.99
Entry No.: 2011010
Entry Date: 5^th August 2011

BOOK DESCRIPTION

Britain’s vast spiritual heritage will enchant anyone with a sense of the sacred. Celtic healing pools, ancient shrines,  exotic saints, spectacular artworks, soaring cathedrals, mystical islands and humble rustic churches bring 2,000 years of belief vividly to life.

The result of a five-year journey from Orkney to the Channel Islands, Britain’s Holiest Places rediscovers this remarkable landscape, shaped by centuries of faith, ritual and some truly extraordinary people. Most remarkable of all, every site listed is still in active use, including many unforgettable highlights:

• A Celtic bathing pool still used daily after 1,300 years (p418)
• Christian paintings as old as the art in Rome’s Catacombs (p45)
• The black African whoe helped found the early English church (p36)
• A mystery tree in a Welsh churchyard that bleeds red sap (p445)
• The room where Baptists held their first meetings (p283)
• A saintly nun who prayed naked in a river every day (p22)
• The first nature reserve in history, on the Farne Islands (p365)
• The original Quaker meeting house (p14)
• A Roman-era mosaic of Christ (p214)
• The world’s oldest wooden church – just off the M25 (p119)

Written with a keen eye for the surreal as well as the sacred, this book is a complete guide for modern visitors, but also an entertaining travelogue of some truly breath-taking experiences.