Book description
In the village of Wreay, near Carlisle, stands the strangest and
most magical church in Victorian England. This vivid, original book
tells the story of its builder, Sarah Losh, strong-willed and
passionate and unusual in every way. Born into an old Cumbrian
family, heiress to an industrial fortune, Sarah combined a zest for
progress with a love of the past. In the church, her masterpiece,
she let her imagination flower - there are carvings of ammonites,
scarabs and poppies; an arrow pierces the wall as if shot from a
bow; a tortoise-gargoyle launches itself into the air. And
everywhere there are pinecones, her signature in stone. The church
is a dramatic rendering of the power of myth and the great natural
cycles of life and death and rebirth.
Sarah's story is also that of her radical family - friends of
Wordsworth and Coleridge; of the love between sisters and the life
of a village; of the struggle of the weavers, the coming of the
railways, the findings of geology and the fate of a young northern
soldier in the Afghan war. Above all, though, it is about the joy of
making and the skill of local, unsung craftsmen.
Jenny Uglow grew up in Cumbria and now works in publishing. Her books
include prize-winning biographies of Elizabeth Gaskell and William
Hogarth. The Lunar Men, published in 2002, was described by Richard
Holmes as 'an extraordinarily gripping account', while her most recent
biography, Nature's Engraver: A Life of Thomas Bewick, won the National
Arts Writers Award for 2007. She lives in Canterbury. Jenny Uglow grew
up in Cumbria and now works in publishing. Her books include
prize-winning biographies of Elizabeth Gaskell and William Hogarth. The
Lunar Men, published in 2002, was described by Richard Holmes as 'an
extraordinarily gripping account', while Nature's Engraver: A Life of
Thomas Bewick, won the National Arts Writers Award for 2007. A Gambling
Man: Charles II and the Restoration was shortlisted for the 2010 Samuel
Johnson Prize. She lives in Canterbury.
