An Unofficial 'The Rest Is History' Reading List

96. The UK’s Best Churches

September 13, 2021

Description

There are estimated to be around 16 thousand churches in England alone. But which are the finest in the UK? Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook are joined by the director of Friends of Friendless...
Read more here

Books Referenced

Four Quartets

Author: T.S. Eliot

Context:

Tom quotes from 'Little Gidding,' which he identifies as 'the last of the four quartets' by T.S. Eliot, in the introduction discussing churches and history

Northumbrians

Author: Dan Jackson

Context:

Dan Jackson is described as 'author of Northumbrians' when mentioning his church suggestions on Twitter

England's Thousand Best Churches

Author: John Betjeman

Context:

Rachel mentions 'Betjeman did his best British churches' and references his 'thousand best churches' as a foundational work on the topic

England's Thousand Best Churches

Author: Simon Jenkins

Context:

Rachel mentions Simon Jenkins' thousand best churches book, criticizing that 'he sort of just ripped off Betjeman' and 'didn't even go to all of the churches'

The Nation's Favourite Churches

Author: Various (Anthology)

Context:

Rachel mentions 'there's a book that's the nation's favourite churches' when discussing previous compilations of church lists

Tomb of the Unknown

Author: Peter Ross

Context:

Rachel explicitly recommends 'a really good book that came out I think last year or the year before called Tomb of the View by Peter Ross' which has a chapter about the Commonwealth Graves Commission

The Man in the Moon

Author: Francis Godwin

Context:

Rachel describes this as 'the world's first science fiction novel' written by Francis Godwin, Bishop of Herefordshire, about a Spanish man who trains swans to fly him to the moon

Jane Eyre

Author: Charlotte Bronte

Context:

Mentioned in the context of St Michael and All Angels church in Hathersage, where Charlotte Bronte visited in 1854 and drew inspiration for her novel, naming the protagonist after the Eyre family