England's Child, the Carillon and the Casting of Big Bells

by Jill Johnston

Book Overview

Jill Johnston has written a magisterial biography of her father, the English bellfounder Cyril F. Johnston (1884-1950), an homage to his life and the craft of bellfounding. During his time, he... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0932274714
• ISBN13: 9780932274717
• Release Date: November 2007
• Publisher: Cadmus Editions
• Length: 311 Pages
• Weight: 1.76 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.1" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

A MUST READ

I love this book not because its subject--bells, their manufacturing process, their transformation into the musical instrument, carillon--is something I have ever even thought much about. I love it because I have never, in my 50-plus years of being an avid book reader, encountered comparable sublime writing. There is a rhythm, an almost transcendental pulse running through the pages--you cannot put the book down. The story--both the elegantly interwoven author's and her father's personal and professional one--is so tantalizingly well written, orchestrated like a grand symphony. Before you realize it, even the somewhat esoteric subject grabs you and you end up knowing and understanding an entire area of facts and figures, a whole landscape of intricate elements that were heretofore secrets. For anyone interested in creative writing at its absolute pinnacle, this book is a MUST READ.