The Stones of Britain is about how rocks make places. The connection between geology and landscape, between the stones beneath the surface and the history that has played out above it. About the varied character of the British landscape, and the rich variety of places that result.
The shattered granite landscape of Dartmoor is different from the soft red sandstone hills of east Devon; the rolling chalk downs distinct from the gritty moors of Yorkshire. Each of these landscapes has a different historical story to tell; that story is rooted in the characteristics of the rocks beneath the surface.
The Stones of Britain interprets these stories. It explains the nature of place on the island of Britain, revealing the landscape as the joint product of geology and man: a history rooted in stone.
Jon Cannon wrote Cathedral:The Great English Cathedrals and the World that Made Them and other books. He also presented the BBC's How to Build a Cathedral. He lives with his family on the chalk downs of Wiltshire, from which he extols about place, sacredness and architecture.
"I have read Jon's book with sustained delight. It is partially that his voice is so distinctive and so compelling. There are sentences that make you want to stand up and cheer. More fundamentally though, this is a strangely, even uniquely, personal engagement with stone – the very thing most of us consider to be impersonal, obdurate, resistant. The passages that describe Jon in the landscape are striking, so is the tactile engagement with stone, and the weaving together of built environment and mythopshere. This is a book in which the character of stone begins to acquire a life of its own. These stones speak. I will carry this with me as I might carry a bird book, to identify the ground beneath my feet. Like Jon himself, The Stones of Britain is full of charm and enthusiasm."
– The Very Reverend Dr David Hoyle MBE, Dean of Westminster