SHIPS OF HEAVEN: THE PRIVATE LIFE OF BRITAIN’S CATHEDRALS
BY CHRISTOPHER SOMERVILLE, DOUBLEDAY, £20 (HB)
It’s a perennial observation in our fractured age that your real worth in this world should not be measured by material things but instead be assessed by the spiritual contribution you make – to friends, to family, to your neighbours, colleagues and fellow travellers on Earth. Perennial traveller Christopher Somerville seems to agree. Cathedrals, he intimates, are not just grand buildings or the centres of ecclesiastical power. Neither are they defined purely by their dictionary meaning: the cathedra or seat of a bishop.
To prove it, Somerville goes behind the scenes at 20 cathedrals up and down the country. We hear from archivists, tour guides, librarians, stonemasons, deans, cleaners and bishops about both the secret life of the cathedral and the face it presents to its wider community. Fascinating glimpses are shared of crumbling masonry, of stained-glass reconstructions and eventful histories.
On two opposing hilltops in the city of Armagh, he visits both the Catholic and Church of Ireland cathedrals to hear a story of separation, reconciliation and the part that the separate dioceses have played. In Salisbury, flung into the spotlight after a spree of indiscriminate nerve-agent poisonings, mention is made of the role played by cathedrals in fostering hope, a contemporary tale from an 800-year-old building.
Writing about the spirit of place is sometimes like nailing jelly to the wall, but Somerville’s thoughtful, occasionally poetic prose hits the spot for a book that sets out to define the genius loci of these magnificent buildings.