C HRISTOPHER H OWSE In Sir Ninian Comper (Spire Books, £29.95) Anthony
Symondson gives us a most satisfying study of the architect, with lovely photographs carefully chosen to explain his work, and a useful gazetteer by Stephen Bucknall for church-crawlers in search of it. Fr Symondson not only conveys what Comper’s underrated architecture is about, but also possesses a rare knack of conveying human character.
Illustrations that benefit from advances in colour-printing are brilliantly keyed into the narrative of Eamon Duffy’s Marking the Hours (Yale, £19.99). Once again, as read ably and convincingly as in The Stripping of the Altars, Professor Duffy brings alive the daily life of English people in the two centuries before the Reformation, this time through the beautiful prayer books that they often annotated or defaced in a revealing way.
A book that should change lives is Ruth Burrows’ Essence of Prayer (Continuum, £9.99). From her years of experience as a contemplative Carmelite she shows how, for anyone, prayer is a humane acceptance of God’s loving presence.
The bad book bin is the immediate destination for most biographies of living politicians, but Andrew Gimson’s Boris (Simon & Schuster, £17.99) is riveting, judicious and devastating. But no need to ask, Boris who? We still all love him.
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