{"id":1975,"date":"2020-05-06T13:45:30","date_gmt":"2020-05-06T12:45:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Ships.jpg"},"modified":"2020-05-06T14:14:24","modified_gmt":"2020-05-06T13:14:24","slug":"ships-3","status":"inherit","type":"attachment","link":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/?attachment_id=1975","title":{"rendered":"Ships of Heaven"},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"class_list":["post-1975","attachment","type-attachment","status-inherit","hentry","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","post","fix"],"description":{"rendered":"

\"Ships<\/a><\/p>\n

Buy your copy here<\/a>
\nShips of Heaven \u2013 The Private Life of Britain\u2019s Cathedrals is the story of Britain\u2019s flotilla of cathedrals, tossed on waves of power and glory, scandal and mayhem for a thousand years. Nowadays these great stone ships seem as solid and unshakeable as any Rock of Ages. But they are leaky old vessels in uncharted waters. They creak and groan, they fail and founder, then resurface against all odds. Theirs is a thrilling saga of crisis and boldness, of ruin and revival.<\/p>\n

Christopher goes behind the scenes to seek out believers, non-believers and troubled souls, bishops and architects, glass makers and embroiderers, the Holy Duster who cleans the ears and noses of the cathedral monuments, and the stonemason who judges his building stone by the way it tastes. He travels with a motley crew of jolly rogues and prophets, of builders and bishops; painters dangling at a rope\u2019s end, monks who watch as their life\u2019s work comes crashing down before their eyes. In such colourful company we delve deep into the private life and the uncertain future of these ever-voyaging Ships of Heaven.<\/p>\n"},"caption":{"rendered":"

\u2018Cathedrals are all things to all people. …\u00a0To capture all this, vividly and stylishly, in one book suggests\u00a0something close to divine inspiration\u00a0… Yet it\u2019s not the breadth of his travels that impresses. It\u2019s the depth of the \u201ccathedral experience\u201d that he uncovers by the old-fashioned journalistic method of getting knowledgeable people to talk freely about what they know best, then using his\u00a0sharp eyes and wits\u00a0to fill in the rest of the story.\u2019 \u2013 Richard Morrison,\u00a0The Times<\/p>\n"},"alt_text":"Ships of Heaven","media_type":"image","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","media_details":{"width":200,"height":290,"file":"2019\/10\/Ships.jpg","sizes":{"thumbnail":{"file":"Ships-150x150.jpg","width":150,"height":150,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","source_url":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Ships-150x150.jpg"},"wptouch-new-thumbnail":{"file":"Ships-144x144.jpg","width":144,"height":144,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","source_url":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Ships-144x144.jpg"},"mosaic-thumb":{"file":"Ships-96x96.jpg","width":96,"height":96,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","source_url":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Ships-96x96.jpg"},"gallery-thumb":{"file":"Ships-96x96.jpg","width":96,"height":96,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","source_url":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Ships-96x96.jpg"},"widget-24":{"file":"Ships-24x24.jpg","width":24,"height":24,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","source_url":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Ships-24x24.jpg"},"widget-32":{"file":"Ships-36x36.jpg","width":36,"height":36,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","source_url":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Ships-36x36.jpg"},"widget-48":{"file":"Ships-48x48.jpg","width":48,"height":48,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","source_url":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Ships-48x48.jpg"},"widget-64":{"file":"Ships-64x64.jpg","width":64,"height":64,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","source_url":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Ships-64x64.jpg"},"widget-96":{"file":"Ships-96x96.jpg","width":96,"height":96,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","source_url":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Ships-96x96.jpg"},"full":{"file":"Ships.jpg","width":200,"height":290,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","source_url":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Ships.jpg"}},"image_meta":{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1","keywords":[]}},"post":null,"source_url":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Ships.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/attachment"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1975"}]}}