English Victorian Churches: Architecture, Faith and Revival
James Stevens Curl
John Hudson Publishing, £50, 240 pages
This handsome little book is an updating of Professor James Stevens Curl’s earlier 1995 work, The English Heritage Book of Victorian Churches. In those days he was restricted to mainly black and white plates. It is now lavishly illustrated with excellent colour photographs, many taken by the late lamented Geoff Brandwood.
The book is dedicated to Brandwood: “Friend, Colleague, Enthusiast, Ecclesiologist and Architectural Photographer with a discerning eye: Nam idem velle atque idem nolle, ea dedum firma amicitia est – to like and dislike the same things, that is truly real friendship.” It is one of the abiding griefs of my life that I was not able to accompany Geoff on his Victorian Society tour of “The Barnsley Biretta Belt”.
