Books & Music

A trio of English composers perhaps better known for their creative output in other fields, yet who played a crucial role in the development of the Anglican choral tradition in the twentieth century. James O’Donnell and Westminster Abbey Choir present a...

Letters from Lockdown comprises 12 weekly letters written by the Director of Westminster Abbey Institute during the Coronavirus lockdown, and three accompanying essays that give the deeply personal perspectives of a politician, a civil servant and a...

London has the greatest literary tradition of any city in the world. Its roll call of storytellers includes cultural giants like Shakespeare, Defoe, and Dickens, and an innumerable host of writers of all sorts who sought to capture the essence of the...

London's Strangest Tales takes a walk on London's weirder side with an absorbing collection of curious tales from one of the world's greatest cities. This fascinating book is packed with amazing things you didn't know about Britain's capital, like the...

Written in aid of the crucial restoration work to restore Paris’s great cathedral, Notre-Dame: A Short History of the Meaning of Cathedrals is a moving, short piece of non-fiction celebrating the stunning history of this beloved building, from Ken...

The profound emotion felt around the world upon seeing images of Notre-Dame in flames opens up a series of questions: Why was everyone so deeply moved? Why does Notre-Dame so clearly crystallise what our civilisation is about? What makes ‘Our Lady of...

Stanford’s eight-part Latin Magnificat was posthumously dedicated to Parry, whose own Songs of farewell are unmistakably valedictory in mood. Personal as well as musical associations run deep in this poignantly expressive programme, recorded in June 2019...

Poems of London brings together a remarkably wide range of poems inspired by the storied city, from its teeming medieval streets to the multicultural metropolis it is today. The pantheon of classic English poets, from Shakespeare and Donne to Wordsworth...

The First World War was one of the deadliest conflicts in modern history and produced horrors undreamed of by the young men who cheerfully volunteered for a war that was supposed to be over by Christmas. Whether in the patriotic enthusiasm of Rupert...

‘It was only two days after I arrived that I realised I had actually joined MI5. It did not exactly throw the doors wide and welcome scrutiny. The existence of the service was avowed but very little else about it was. Who worked for it? Where were its...

Delve deep under London's streets from the days when the Romans ruled through to the hustle and bustle of the modern-day capital in this fantastic flap book. The book includes double page spreads on medieval times, the Tudor period, the Plague, the Great...

A stunning foiled cover does justice to Shakespeare’s elegant sonnets in this first book of a new series of inspirational writing. The sonnets here are given space to breathe: divided thematically and sparsely illustrated, the beautiful verse delivers...