Building Jerusalem

Kevin J. Gardner, Professor of English

Nostalgia and love of parish churches is deeply embedded in the British psyche. Following the success of Poems in the Porch, a collection of hitherto unpublished poems on parish churches by Sir John Betjeman, Kevin Gardner has now assembled a new anthology of poems on the same theme yet with a greater diversity of post-war authors—Philip Larkin, R. S. Thomas, John Betjeman, C. Day Lewis, U. A. Fanthorpe, and many others. The collection is introduced by a fascinating critical introduction, 'Anglican Memory and Post-war British Poetry' and will appeal to church and poetry lovers alike in their droves.

Bloomsbury, 2016

ISBN 9781472924353

“A church without a poem is a steeple without a bell, a choir without a hymn. Thank you Kevin Gardner for composing such a glorious sound, and from friends old and new. It will enhance every church visitor's bliss.” —Sir Simon Jenkins

“A plangent, devastating elegy for a Church of England apparently in its death throes… One reads it with mingled admiration of the verse and sadness at the dereliction of so many English parish churches.” —Bevis Hillier

“An anthology that gave me even more pleasure than I expected.” —Christopher Howse, Daily Telegraph