Building Jerusalem
by Kevin J Gardener
Bloomsbury, £16.99
A Betjeman-esque melancholy pervades these pages: not surprising, perhaps, since the editor is a renowned Betjeman expert. In his introduction to the book, subtitled “Elegies on Parish Churches”, Kevin Gardner writes of a “loss of cultural identity” and of how we seek the “coherence of the past” in an “alienated present”.
English parish churches, tucked down country lanes, can serve this purpose very nicely, especially if they are a little ramshackle and neglected. Such buildings certainly pull in the poets, not least when something elegiac is required. Take Neil Powell visiting St Botolph’s on the Suffolk coast, where “decay has overtaken the postcard charm” and “creepers in the tower challenge the bell ropes”, while “a builder’s sign recalls diminishing hopes”. Lovely, poignant stuff.
