Steeple Chasing, Peter Ross
Steeple Chasing, Peter Ross
List: $31.99 | Sale: $22.40
Club: $15.99

Steeple Chasing
Around Britain by Church

Author: Peter Ross

Narrator: Peter Ross

Unabridged: 11 hr 47 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Headline

Published: 05/11/2023


Synopsis

From the author of A Tomb With a View - a celebration of the weird and wonderful churches of Britain

Churches are all around us. Their steeples remain landmarks in our towns, villages and cities, even as their influence and authority has waned. They contain art and architectural wonders - one huge gallery scattered, like a handful of jewels, across these isles.

Award-winning writer Peter Ross sets out to tell their stories, and through them a story of Britain. Join him as he visits the unassuming Norfolk church which contains a disturbing secret, and London's mighty cathedrals with their histories of fire and love. Meet cats and bats, monks and druids, angels of oak and steel.

Steeple Chasing, though it sometimes strikes an elegiac note, is a song of praise. It celebrates churches for their beauty and meaning, and for the tales they tell. It is about people as much as place, flesh and bone not just flint and stone. From the painted hells of Surrey to the holy wells of Wales, consider this a travel book . . . with bells on.

Praise for Peter Ross

'Ross is a wonderfully evocative writer, deftly capturing a sense of place and history, while bringing a deep humanity to his subject. He has written a delightful book.' - The Guardian

'Fascinating . . . Ross makes a likeably idiosyncratic guide and one finishes the book feeling strangely optimistic about the inevitable.' - The Observer

'A phenomenal, lyrical, beautiful book.' - Frank Turner

'The author's humanity has acted as a beacon of light in the darkness.' - The Sunday Times

(P) 2023 Headline Publishing Group Ltd

About Peter Ross

Peter Ross is an Orwell journalism fellow. His writing has appeared in national newspapers and magazines in the UK and US. His won the non-fiction prize at Scotland's National Book Awards with A Tomb With A View: The Stories & Glories of Graveyards, and his most recent book, Steeple Chasing, was a Sunday Times bestseller and was selected as Waterstones Non-Fiction Book of the Month. He is also author of the collections Daunderlust and The Passion Of Harry Bingo. He lives in Glasgow.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Pam on February 17, 2025

I found this to be a wonderful book. The author evidently began his site research just as Covid hit and was sometimes unable to go where he wanted to go. Regulations and closures eventually came to an end but the impact of the pandemic sits heavily on everyone including the author. The book is not a......more

Goodreads review by Colin on September 06, 2023

Steeple Chasing is an absolute delight. Peter Ross takes the reader on a tour of the often overlooked glories of British churches. From great cathedrals to tiny, disused parish churches, it is a song of praise to their endless variety, their art and architecture, but most of all, to their place in t......more

Goodreads review by Sophy on July 13, 2024

Admittedly I skim read some chapters of this one as it was a library loan and I had limited time to get through it. Ross does a good job of covering different churches around Britain and looking at various aspects of said churches (bats, gargoyles, pilgrims, ancient tombs/graves etc). Obviously ther......more

Goodreads review by Sembray on January 31, 2024

As someone who is not religious but has always been awed by the power of churches to captivate us, I was fascinated by this book. Steeple Chasing provides an enthralling overview of many of Britain's churches, both famous and forgotten, and the people (and cats and bats!) that call them a home. Ross......more

Goodreads review by Sophie on June 22, 2023

Stunning follow up to A Tomb With A View. A must read for anyone who loves churches and graveyards!......more


Quotes

What makes Steeple Chasing so compelling - and it is a wonderful book; thoughtful and challenging - ... is Ross's essential kindness, his unfailing empathy with the people he meets on his pilgrimage. Daily Telegraph

A charming odyssey . . . in this lyrical love letter to churches Ross reminds us there is something worth saving and people who will make the effort. The Times

His book is a delicious treat, and one that both believers and sceptics will enjoy. Financial Times

Reading a book is another reciprocal act: if it's good, it stays with you. Ross's readers will have his words humming through them for a long time. Spectator

Lovely, lyrical, whimsical, elegiac ... Ross has a gift for making you feel you're there with him, just as awed as he is. Times Literary Supplement

Ross has always had a quiet charm, and it is perhaps displayed best in this book. . . it is properly interested in humanity, especially in its complexity. The Scotsman

Steeple Chasing is, as you might expect from Ross, itself a beautiful object, full of delicacy and deliberation in the writing. . .a fascinating, beautifully written book full of both the strange and the terrible, but also full of grace and love. The Herald

Beautifully observed and evocatively written. Country Life

Never less than fascinating. Books From Scotland