'I loved this book. What a joy to read a craftsman so clearly in love with his craft' SIMON JENKINS

'A wonderful read' DOUGALD O'REILLY

'Literary prize juries need look no further for a worthy winner' MAX HASTINGS

'In a world of AI, steel and concrete, books like this have never felt more important' DAILY MAIL

Discover ancient stone wonders and architectural preservation secrets in the hands of one of the world’s greatest stonemasons.

Across the world and across time, the buildings of the gods and royalty have mostly been made of stone, towering over the homes of us lesser beings who have had to make do with mud, wood or brick. When civilisations wish to create beauty to last – for veneration of the gods or mortal men – it is to stone they turn. Crossing oceans and hauling blocks across thousands of kilometres, to quarry and sometimes plunder pillars and statues to stand sentinel for glory.

As one of the world’s most pre-eminent stonemasons and conservators Simon Warrack has worked in more than thirty different countries and with all major religions. In this book, Simon explores ten different places where he has learnt and plied his trade. From the Trevi Fountain to Angkor Wat, via Great Zimbabwe, Canterbury Cathedral and many more, he takes us to some of the greatest buildings and monuments in the world. Everywhere he goes, despite vast cultural diversity, he finds a communality through stone – a shared desire to conserve and maintain heritage that has spanned continents, cultures and millennia.

The story he tells is of the beauty of stone, restored and accompanied by the sound of chisels. He captures both the joys, skills and the challenges of conservation, as well as how easily restoration can damage the values and traditions it seeks to preserve if conducted with insensitivity. Underlying all his work is his passionate belief that stonemasons and conservators must be guided by the spirit with which people built, carved and cared for their monuments. Without this, monuments may have form and beauty, but they lose the essence and spirit of everything that caused them to be created.