Lamorna Ash (‘a new star of non-fiction’ William Dalrymple) explores why young people today are turning to faith in an age of uncertainty.

When several of her friends turned to faith in their twenties, Lamorna Ash sensed the beginnings of a phenomenon. In our fractured age, a new generation was rediscovering Christianity for itself.

In this urgent and lyrical adventure, Ash embarks on a journey across Britain to meet the young people wrestling with faith today. Taking us from ancient abbeys to modern meeting houses, silent retreats to garrulous Bible classes, Don’ t Forget We’re Here Forever explores our need for community and nourishment of the soul.

This book seeks to calm fears and encourage understanding through telling a 3000-year-long tale of Christians encountering sex, gender and the family, with noises off from their sacred texts. The message of Lower than the Angels is simple, necessary and timely: to pay attention to the sheer glorious complexity and contradictions in the history of Christianity. The reader can decide from the story told here whether there is a single Christian theology of sex, or many contending voices in a symphony that is not at all complete. Oxford’s Emeritus Professor of the History of the Church introduces an epic of ordinary and extraordinary Christians trying to make sense of themselves and of humanity’s deepest desires, fears and hopes.

‘Spellbinding. An incredible exploration of how young people are navigating the complex world we find ourselves in today’ Katy Hessel, author of The Story of Art without Men

‘A book of rare quality. Ash is a writer of exceptional grace and energy’ Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury

Why are young people in Britain today turning to faith in our age of uncertainty?

Lamorna Ash was raised with about as much Christianity as most people in Britain these days: a basic knowledge of hymns and prayers received via a Church of England primary school education; occasional brushes with religious services. But once she started writing about her two friends’ unexpected conversions, she began encountering a recurring phenomenon: in an age of disconnection and apathy, a new generation was discovering religion for itself.

In Don’t Forget We’re Here Forever, Ash embarks on a journey across Britain to meet those wrestling with Christianity today. Through interviews and her own deeply personal journey with religion, and from Evangelical youth festivals to Quaker meetings, a silent Jesuit retreat along the Welsh coastline to a monastic community in the Inner Hebrides, she investigates what drives young people in the twenty-first century to embrace Christianity. Written with lyrical beauty and sensitivity, this is a reminder of our universal need for nourishment of the soul.

This book seeks to calm fears and encourage understanding through telling a 3000-year-long tale of Christians encountering sex, gender and the family, with noises off from their sacred texts. The message of Lower than the Angels is simple, necessary and timely: to pay attention to the sheer glorious complexity and contradictions in the history of Christianity. The reader can decide from the story told here whether there is a single Christian theology of sex, or many contending voices in a symphony that is not at all complete. Oxford’s Emeritus Professor of the History of the Church introduces an epic of ordinary and extraordinary Christians trying to make sense of themselves and of humanity’s deepest desires, fears and hopes.

‘A beautiful book’ – Gabriel Byrne

‘Beautiful and brilliant. I loved it’ – Fergus Butler-Gallie

From the author of A Tomb With a View – Scottish Non-Fiction book of the Year

Churches are all around us. Their steeples remain landmarks in our towns, villages and cities, even as their influence and authority has waned. They contain art and architectural wonders – one huge gallery scattered, like a handful of jewels, across these isles.

Award-winning writer Peter Ross sets out to tell their stories, and through them a story of Britain. Join him as he visits the unassuming Norfolk church which contains a disturbing secret, and London’s mighty cathedrals with their histories of fire and love. Meet cats and bats, monks and druids, angels of oak and steel.

Steeple Chasing, though it sometimes strikes an elegiac note, is a song of praise. It celebrates churches for their beauty and meaning, and for the tales they tell. It is about people as much as place, flesh and bone not just flint and stone. From the painted hells of Surrey to the holy wells of Wales, consider this a travel book . . . with bells on.

Praise for Peter Ross

‘Ross is a wonderfully evocative writer, deftly capturing a sense of place and history, while bringing a deep humanity to his subject. He has written a delightful book.’ – The Guardian

‘Fascinating . . . Ross makes a likeably idiosyncratic guide and one finishes the book feeling strangely optimistic about the inevitable.’ – The Observer

‘The author’s humanity has acted as a beacon of light in the darkness.’ – The Sunday Times