{"product_id":"if-these-stones-could-talk","title":"If These Stones Could Talk","description":"\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eA heavenly book,\u003cwbr\u003e elegant and thoughtful. Get one for yourself and one for the church-crawler in your life!' Lucy Worsley\u003c\/wbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Christianity has been central to the lives of the people of Britain and Ireland for almost 2,\u003cwbr\u003e000 years. It has given us laws,\u003cwbr\u003e customs,\u003cwbr\u003e traditions and our national character. From a persecuted minority in Roman Britannia through the 'golden age' of Anglo-Saxon monasticism,\u003cwbr\u003e the devastating impact of the Vikings,\u003cwbr\u003e the alliance of church and state after the Norman Conquest to the turmoil of the Reformation that saw the English monarch replace the Pope and the Puritan Commonwealth that replaced the king,\u003cwbr\u003e it is a tangled,\u003cwbr\u003e tumultuous story of faith and achievement,\u003cwbr\u003e division and bloodshed.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e In \u003ci\u003eIf These Stones Could Talk\u003c\/i\u003e Peter Stanford journeys through England,\u003cwbr\u003e Scotland,\u003cwbr\u003e Wales and Ireland to churches,\u003cwbr\u003e abbeys,\u003cwbr\u003e chapels and cathedrals,\u003cwbr\u003e grand and humble,\u003cwbr\u003e ruined and thriving,\u003cwbr\u003e ancient and modern,\u003cwbr\u003e to chronicle how a religion that began in the Middle East came to define our past and shape our present. In exploring the stories of these buildings that are still so much a part of the landscape,\u003cwbr\u003e the details of their design,\u003cwbr\u003e the treasured objects that are housed within them,\u003cwbr\u003e the people who once stood in their pulpits and those who sat in their pews,\u003cwbr\u003e he builds century by century the narrative of what Christianity has meant to the nations of the British Isles,\u003cwbr\u003e how it is reflected in the relationship between rulers and ruled,\u003cwbr\u003e and the sense it gives about who we are and how we live with each other.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'There is no better navigator through the space in which art,\u003cwbr\u003e culture and spirituality meet than Peter Stanford' Cole Moreton,\u003cwbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eIndependent on Sunday\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/wbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/wbr\u003e\u003c\/wbr\u003e\u003c\/wbr\u003e\u003c\/wbr\u003e\u003c\/wbr\u003e\u003c\/wbr\u003e\u003c\/wbr\u003e\u003c\/wbr\u003e\u003c\/wbr\u003e\u003c\/wbr\u003e\u003c\/wbr\u003e","brand":"MediaPlace","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57315113206142,"sku":"NW9781529396430","price":12.15,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1379\/1261\/files\/9781529396430.jpg?v=1778638186","url":"https:\/\/mediaplace.com\/products\/if-these-stones-could-talk","provider":"MediaPlace","version":"1.0","type":"link"}