The Bodley Head pre-empts Morley’s ‘gloriously entertaining’ Church Crawling

The Bodley Head has acquired Rachel Morley’s “transporting and gloriously entertaining” journey into England’s past through its rural parish churches, Church Crawling.

Will Hammond, deputy publishing director, pre-empted UK and Commonwealth rights from James Pullen at The Wylie Agency. Publication is scheduled for spring 2026.

The publisher says the book will show “how these quiet-seeming and often overlooked buildings are in fact teeming with life and stories that bring us into contact with England’s history, geography and character in the most colourful, moving and unexpected ways".

Its description goes on: “Through their wall-paintings and monuments, their graffiti and plaques, carved beams and crypts, their jumble of furniture and oddities, Morley will show these buildings to be the living expression of centuries of communal history and folk culture, both boisterous and tender, raucous and sublime, offering as close an encounter with the past as it is possible to get.

“The rate of closure of England’s churches is set to increase, passing out of their communities’ hands and out of the public realm. Her book shows that if this continues we risk losing our greatest cultural treasures and our greatest architectural legacy.”

Morley is a building conservator who is director of the Friends of Friendless Churches, which rescues, repairs and re-opens unwanted old churches. She is also a judge for the John Betjeman Award for Church Conservation and Repair, has served as chair and trustee of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, and has spoken about churches on podcasts such as "History Hit" and “The Rest is History”.

Hammond said: “Rachel Morley is a pure joy to read: funny, irreverent, heartfelt and passionate all at the same time. Her knowledge of churches and their stories is just remarkable but what makes her an unmatched guide to these places is her wonderful ability to evoke the daily life of the past in all its splendour and grubbiness and tenderness and humour.”

Morley said: “I’m delighted to be writing this book with The Bodley Head. I can’t wait to lead the reader under rippling arches, past clambering angels and greasy kneelers, to meet the people whose lives have become part of the fabric of the country.”