Simon Jenkins,Paul Barker, England's Thousand Best Churches Reviews

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Good Points: This book has encouraged me to look agan at some familiar buildings and some not so well known. It is a good mixture of places chosen for style history and aesthetic appeal. Well written without being over fussy or too technical.

Bad Points: It is a difficult task to rate churches as best or worst, for instance in my own county of Oxfordshire many otheres would seem to qualify, therefore Jenkins' system seems somewhat arbitary. I think he should have perhaps noted in the county maps a few more places that he didn't write about but which are still well worth a longer visit.

General comments: England's Thousand Best Churches by Simon Jenkins and Paul Barker is a thouroughly enjoyable book that now seems to be worth taking with me on all trips to counties I'm less familiar with.

I've gained much from visiting many of his recommended churches and whilst I may quibble with a few of the ratings, the debate opened up by the book has been wholly worthwhile.

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Simon Jenkins,Paul Barker, England's Thousand Best Churches - This is, overall, an outstanding book. It provides a very impressive account of a thousand of the best churches in England. Without this book, I would not even have been aware of most of them, despite my love of medieval churches.

Jenkins obviously knows his stuff. He writes in a manner which is knowledgeable and erudite, yet accessible to the non-specialist. There is a wealth of fascinating detail, and a wealth too of often well-a ...