These places set in stone that curious paradox of Catholicism: the scandal of particularity; the universal mission of the Catholic Church. In Heaven on Earth Emma J Wells certainly captures the particularity of these cathedrals, and her book is filled with tales of local patrons, craftsmen and the wider politics of the kingdoms in which these cathedrals were built. The buildings themselves narrate the messy realities of the more political life of the Church: the competition between abbeys; different cathedrals vying to become the seat of the archbishop; fights over relics or privileges.

Wells clearly writes from a more secular perspective, but without many of the infelicities to which secular authors are sometimes given in dealing with religious subjects. While for Catholics the cathedral points to the wider universality of the Church, as well as the hope of heavenly glory, she views the universality of the cathedral design – the cathedral idea – as an arresting aesthetic experience. Between 2018 and 2021, Wells was appointed a Research Associate of the Department for Archaeology at the University of York. In September 2021, she was appointed as Research Fellow of the Department for Archaeology at Durham University. She was promoted to Lecturer in Ecclesiastical and Architectural History at the University of York in 2019. [3] Alamy A photo of the interior of the central dome of Hagia Sophia, Istanbul, used in the book, which is our Christmas Crossword prize this year A glorious illustrated history of twenty of the world's greatest cathedrals, interwoven with the extraordinary stories of the people who built them.

Church Times/RSCM:

Wells, Emma J. (2022). Heaven On Earth: The Lives & Legacies of the World’s Greatest Cathedrals. London: Head of Zeus. ISBN 978-1788541947

The rebuilding of Canterbury Cathedral following the fire of 1174 is a project we can still experience today. Over a million people from across the globe are welcomed through the doors at Canterbury every year.But this is just one story. An impeccable guide to the golden age of ecclesiastical architecture... Meticulously researched... It's to Wells's credit that she manages to make the history of these cathedrals as gripping as she does. * The Times * Wells, Emma J. (2013) "'...he went round the holy places praying and offering': Evidence for Cuthbertine Pilgrimage to Lindisfarne and Farne in the Late Medieval Period" in Ashbee, J. and J. Luxford (eds) Newcastle and Northumberland: Roman and Medieval Architecture and Art. Leeds: Maney, 214–31. ISBN 978-1907975929 Charting Chipeling to investigate archaeology of the Kiplin Estate | The National Lottery Heritage Fund". www.heritagefund.org.uk. 1 November 2013.

Reviews

Wells tells the stories of the people and politics behind the often centuries-long building, extending, repairing, and reshaping of cathedrals, beginning with Emperor Justinian’s remarkable, ornate church of Hagia Sophia, in Istanbul, which became a mosque, a museum, and now a mosque again, and influenced many (including Christopher Wren). It ends with Brunelleschi’s 1435 cupola for Florence Cathedral, which “synthesized Gothic configuration and Neo-classical style”. She is currently a lecturer at York University, a Research Fellow at Durham University, and is heavily involved in a number of learned societies and academic journals. She is a regular contributor on both television and radio, having appeared or consulted on such television programmes as ‘The History of Home’, ‘The Architecture the Railways Built’ and ‘A Great British Story: From the Dales to the Sea’. In 2012, Wells established Emma J. Wells Heritage Consultancy. The firm provided professional heritage and archaeology services, [10] and was responsible for co-organising and co-leading a series of community projects throughout 2013 and 2014 including the HLF funded project, Charting Chipeling which sought to uncover the social and architectural history, and underlying archaeology, of Kiplin Hall in North Yorkshire, and was a contributing author on the resulting publication: Charting Chipeling: The Archaeology of the Kiplin Estate. [11]She was also a partner on the HLF-funded Ledgerstone Survey of England and Wales. [12]

Emma will be at St. Mary’s Church, at 7:30PM on Saturday 18th June to talk about her fascinating career and her upcoming book ‘Heaven on Earth – The Lives and Legacies of the World’s Greatest Cathedrals’. This work, to be published in July, follows her hugely well-received 2016 book, ‘Pilgrim Routes of the British Isles’ appealing to historians, architecture enthusiasts and walkers. Wells is also the writer and presenter of the three-part series, St Cuthbert’s Way, which premiered on Viral History's YouTube channel in 2018. [30] Publications [ edit ] Books [ edit ] Combining scholarship and an eye for human stories, Heaven on Earth is a vivid, colourful and absorbing tour of the greatest buildings the medieval world produced. -- Dan Jones their intelligence – this makes a huge difference for a speaker. In the Oxford audience I encountered many experts in the field my book covered and even one of the ambassadors I’d quoted Dr Emma Wells is Lecturer in Ecclesiastical and Architectural History at the University of York, and the author of many publications, including Pilgrim Routes of the British Isles (Hale, 2016), lauded as “a beautifully written and hugely useful book” by Oxford art historian and broadcaster Dr Janina Ramirez. Her next book is Heaven On Earth: The Lives & Legacies of the World’s Greatest Cathedrals (Head of Zeus, 2022). Emma is also Research Fellow in Archaeology at Durham University. She is a broadcaster and regularly writes for popular magazines, such as BBC History, BBC Countryfile and History Today.During her doctoral research, Wells was a research consultant for the 2011 British Museum's "Treasures of Heaven: Saints, Relics, and Devotion in Medieval Europe" exhibition and the 2012 Lindisfarne Gospels Durham Leverhulme Trust project. [9] Emma J. Wells has written an accessible, authoritative and lavishly illustrated account of the building of 16 of ‘the world’s greatest cathedrals… The book gives full weight to the wealth of legends associated with cathedrals. Centre for Parish Church Studies – Academic Advisory Board". Centre for Parish Church Studies. Norwich Historic Churches Trust. 2020 . Retrieved 30 January 2022. So, Emma Wells’s Heaven on Earth, combining an academic approach with captivating storytelling to describe 16 cathedrals, should find a receptive audience.