Description:
You thought Downton Abbey and Agatha Christie were entertaining. Well, the real England has more guts and glamour, murder and mayhem, treachery and triumph than any fictional portrayal. This is especially true when it comes to Church history. The truth, it turns out, is far, far more inspiring than the drama on your screen.
When Fr. Dwight Longenecker was a child, he contracted an incurable disease: Anglophilia, the love of England and all things English. That love eventually sent him and his brother Don, a vintage car enthusiast, on a road adventure through the heart of old England in an open-topped British two-seater. With banter, humor, and no shortage of mishaps, they traversed the paths of the English martyrs, explored the clandestine priest holes built by St. Nicholas Owen, and uncovered hidden treasures most tourists never find.
In his unfiltered, conversational style that reads more like a novel than a travel memoir, Fr. Longenecker invites you along for every English mile. You will discover:
- Why a five-foot-tall carpenter became one of the most wanted men in England
- The secret passageways and priest holes so ingenious that some remained undiscovered for centuries
- The skull of a martyred priest -- and the quiet Catholic hands that rescued it from oblivion
- The hidden Catholic meaning behind some of England's loveliest churches, ruins, villages, and country lanes
- The one place where King Arthur, Joseph of Arimathea, New Age mystics, and Catholic martyrs all collide
- The windswept hill that may have helped inspire Narnia, the Shire, and one of the most famous sacrificial scenes in modern literature
- Why the martyrs of old England are not simply figures from the past but witnesses for the battles Christians still face today
Whether in ancient churches, crumbling halls, or warm pubs, Fr. Longenecker shares discoveries that will deepen your faith, fire your imagination, and make you feel as though you are walking beside him. As Gandalf says, "All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."
Brief description: Fr. Dwight Longenecker was brought up an Evangelical, studied at fundamentalist Bob Jones University, and later was ordained as an Anglican priest in England. After ten years in the Anglican ministry as a curate, a chaplain at Cambridge, and a country parson, in 1995 Dwight was received into full communion with the Catholic Church. He has published in numerous religious magazines and papers in the UK, Ireland, and the USA, writing on film and theology, apologetics, Biblical commentary and Catholic culture.