Ian Mortimer

It is the cathedral which you will see first. As you journey along the road you come to a break in the trees and there it is, massive and magnificient cresting the hilltop in the morning sun.

There is a misconception that the English countryside is unchanging. 'As old as the hills' is a phrase one often hears. However those hills are slowly being developed. Some are being cleared of undergrowth and coming under the plough for the first time. Some are being enclosed within field boundaries, for the more efficient management of large flock of sheeps.

While a man may legally beat his wife, she may accuse him in a church court of cruelty, for beating her too much, and have the court force him to mend his ways. But no man could take his wife to court for this - for husband-beating- as no court will sympathise with a man so feeble that he cannot himself against his own wife.

Shocking though it may appear to you, you have something in common with these people who believe in relics, fight tournaments and hunt with falcons. Books. Many of them see literature as a satisfying and enjoyable way to spend time. Of couse, they might not actually pick up a book themselves ...