Simon Jenkins
Viking, 2021
This is an ideal book for its purpose. It gives about three pages per cathedral, including a couple of excellent colour photos of each one. Simon Jenkins gives a bit of history and then how it looks today, pointing out highlights. He has a good turn of phrase when dishing out criticism as well as praise.
The book has helped me draw up a bucket list of Cathedrals I ought to make an effort to see whenever I may be in a particular country. My personal top eighteen out of his hundred:
France: Albi; Chartres; Metz.
Germany: Bamberg; Freiburg im Breisgau; Passau.
Austria: Vienna.
Italy: Milan; San Vitale, Raverna; St Mark’s, Venice.
Sicily: Monreale.
Malta: St John, Valletta
Turkey: Hagia Sophia, Istanbul.
Russia: St Basil’s, Moscow.
Poland: Wroclaw.
Spain: Cordoba; Seville; Toledo.
September 2022
Adrian Vincent