Customer Rating: 
Summary: A very useful guide
Comment: This is an invaluable book to have when visiting the cathedral cities of England.
Solid guides containing a brief history and a plan of each cathedral with a route showing the main points of interest. These tend to provide more information than the guides you can pick up in the cathedrals and are written with an engaging style that avoids too much architectural or ecclesiastical detail.
Even better are the walks outside the cathedral. There are often 2 walks per cathedral - one around the immediate area of the cathedral, the other being a walk of a couple of miles or more around the town showing points of interest, museums etc and also recommendations of pubs, eateries etc.
A guide aimed squarely at providing useful, interesting and well-presented information for the visitor - just about the ideal travel book.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Buy it - it is a great book to take to the cathedral
Comment: This is a splendid book. I never know why information on the size of a book is not given ( approx 15.5cm by 21.5 cm by 2.5 cm), but this one fits comfortably in the hand and is easy to carry, slightly too big for most pockets and certainly not a coffee table book. It has a flexible yet stiff cover that is ideal for small haversacks.TIt has everything that a good guide should have. I will use Lincoln Cathedral as an example - 1.5 pages on the history, 5.5 pages as a guide around the cathedral including a commendable plan with all the points of interest (36 are listed). Then there are 4 pages including a map on a walk around the cathedral - this places the cathedral within it's own particular environment. Whoever thought of this is to be congratulated.
The book includes excellent colour photos and line drawings.
The book is current having been published in 2003. As a result of reading this book I am now planning a trip that will take in Gloucester, Hereford and Worcester.
If you are looking for a proper guide (and not a critique on architectural style or whether the Victorians were poor restorers of cathedrals) then buy the book.
Well worth the money!!
