Hodder & Stoughton nabs Fergus Butler-Gallie’s 'bold' history of Christianity

Hodder & Stoughton has signed ordained Anglican priest Fergus Butler-Gallie’s Twelve Churches.

Tom Perrin pre-empted UK and Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, from Max Edwards at Aevitas Creative Management, and the book will be published in August 2025. Caroline Sutton at Avid Reader (Simon & Schuster) will publish simultaneously in North America.

"Twelve Churches is a bold and beautifully written new history of Christianity told through the stories of 12 varied churches, spread internationally, ranging from the Hagia Sophia to an Alabama Baptist Church to the Vatican," the synopsis says. "In the book Butler-Gallie will explore the role of hope, faith and beauty in Christianity, but also its fraught relationships with sex, violence and power."

Perrin said: "I have long been an admirer of Fergus’ work and his magical combination of reverence and revelry. I adored his A Field Guide to the English Clergy and also his memoir Touching Cloth. I am delighted to be publishing his next title."

Butler-Gallie added: "I am incredibly excited to be working on this project, telling the stories of Christianity through the people and places that made it and continue to make it to this day. To be entrusted with these narratives has been an enormous privilege and I can’t wait to share them with world at large."