Little Book Of Gargoyles

Product Description

They stare down at us from the roofs & towers of our mediaeval churches: grotesque monstrous & utterly mesmerising. The gargoyles grimacing & leering at us down the centuries taking the form of anything from a centaur to a cretinous imp were put there in the Middle Ages to ward off the evil that lies beyond the holy ground. But even in our modern era our newspapers filled with tales of abduction & disaster these magnificent works of sculpture & carving murmur to us of nightmares & nasty thoughts & intimations of our mortality. Mike Hardings travels have taken him not only from Cumbria to Somerset but also to France Italy & even northern India in search of the most memorable & malevolent gargoyles celebrated here in his superb photographs & erudite quirky text. Here then are mouth-pullers & monster musicians poking tongues & priapic giants heads sprouting water or silently howling with toothache -not to mention the gargantuan cats glaring at us in Gloucester Cathedral.