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Headline nets journey around Britain’s churches by award-winning author Ross
Headline has acquired Steeple Chasing: Around Britain By Church by Peter Ross, whose book A Tomb With A View (Headline) was named Non-fiction Book of the Year at Scotland’s National Book Awards 2021.
Senior commissioning editor Richard Roper acquired world rights to Steeple Chasing from Kevin Pocklington at the North Agency for publication in May 2023.
The publisher’s synopsis reads: “Churches are all around us. Their steeples remain landmarks in our towns, villages and cities, even as their influence and authority has waned. They contain art and architectural wonders – one huge gallery scattered, like a handful of jewels, across these isles.
“Award-winning writer Peter Ross sets out to tell their stories, and through them a story of Britain. Join him as he visits the unassuming Norfolk church which contains a disturbing secret, and London’s mighty cathedrals with their histories of fire and love. Meet cats and bats, monks and druids, angels of oak and steel.
“Steeple Chasing, though it sometimes strikes an elegiac note, is a song of praise. It celebrates churches for their beauty and meaning, and for the tales they tell. It is about people as much as place, flesh and bone not just flint and stone. From the painted hells of Surrey to the holy wells of Wales, consider this a travel book... with bells on."
Ross, an Orwell journalism fellow, said: “To travel around Britain from church to church is to be reminded of the beauty of the landscape, the character of the buildings, and the resilience of the people.
“At a time of darkness, I have felt cheered and strengthened by the experience, and hope that readers who join me on the journey will feel that, too. I’m thankful to be working with Headline on Steeple Chasing – a book full of replenishing life and light.”
Roper commented: “In Peter’s previous book, he wrote incredibly movingly and with great perception about our shifting relationship with graveyards and the way people are remembered.
“In Steeple Chasing he has once again written a beautiful book, this time about our churches and the people inextricably linked to them. As ever, his writing bursts off the page. It is moving, lyrical and underscored with a knowing wit. I can’t wait for people to discover this book.”
