Books by Graham Jones

Saints in the Landscape

'Diligent masterpiece' (Ronald Blythe, Church Times)

'Invaluable' (Dan Hull, British Archaeology)

Heaven and earth in season and locality

Published by Tempus in 2007, Saints in the Landscape sets out to show how much of the history of Britain’s homesteads, villages, towns and regions is bound up in the identities of the patron saints chosen for churches, chapels, festivals, fairs, and features of the landscape.

It reveals that even the most popular cults, beginning with devotion to Mary, have geographical patterns which can only be explained as deliberate choices informed by common understandings of what each saint stood for and promised.

Universal, regional and local devotional cults are examined through the evidence of liturgy, art and literature, as well as history, geography, archaeology, and studies of the landscape. Case studies show how the choice of patrons helped individuals and communities to make sense of themselves, their surroundings, and the circling seasons.

One reason for the neglect and misuse of dedications as historical evidence has been the failure to confront those changes of patronal cult that persuade many that dedications have no scientific value. The book shows that such changes are regionally variable and themselves hugely informative. It explains how large spatial, thematic and temporal patterns are statistically sound as tools for exploring the past, and suggests ways in which readers can begin to uncover the hidden history of their localities.

Ronald Blythe, author of Akenfield, and for 20 years editor of Penguin Classics, writing in the Church Times in March 2008 (below), described Saints in the Landscape as a 'diligent masterpiece'. Its author had 'succeeded in putting an incredible amount of information into an exciting narrative form'.

Dan Hull, Head of Information at the Council for British Archaeology, wrote in British Archaeology (March-April 2008) that 'the book and its related electronic resource (www.le.ac.uk/users/grj1/tasc.html) draw together an enormous quantity of documentary evidence which will prove invaluable to local historians and students of Britain's complex Christian church'.

Saints in the Landscape is available on-line from the publishers at  http://www.thehistorypress.co.uk/Default.aspx?tabid=7613&ProductID=2185, price £13.95.

Saints of Europe:

Studies towards a Survey of Cult and Culture

'Emphasises the importance of fully contextualising any saint's cult

and its devotions' (Michael Penman, Journal of Medieval History)

Holding a mirror to mindsets in an age of 'global' devotion

Cults of saints lay at the heart of religion during the pre-modern era (and in many places still do) just as the relics of saints lay in the physical heart of churches across Europe. This book, edited by Graham Jones, presents fifteen papers, plus an introduction, delivered at a conference at Leicester University in 1999, which reflect a recent revival in interest in the sanctity of the past. The contributors propose areas for future study and highlight the sources that are available. In particular the studies examine saints' cults and pilgrimage sites in the Netherlands, Transylvania, Germany and England as well as discussing evidence from Iceland, Egypt and North America. The book concludes with case studies that consider medieval Finnish and Karelian churches and altars, and dedications in England, Wales and Catalunya. 279p, maps, tbs (Shaun Tyas 2003).

Two dozen scholars from four continents attended the conference, the first Colloquium of TASC, the project for a Trans-national Database and Atlas of Saints' Cults. The papers presented there set out the case for the systematic, comprehensive, and scientific recording of religious dedications across national boundaries and their study using electronic data-collection and analysis.

Saints of Europe is available on-line from Oxbow books, price £35, or direct from the publishers, Shaun Tyas, at 1 High Street, Donington, Lincolnshire PE11 4TA (Tel:(0)1775 821542).

The Toiling Word:

Nurturing a Healthy Press for India's Rural Millions

Published in 1979 by the International Press Institute, Zurich, this book-length report summarises the discussions at a conference of Indian editors and publishers in December 1978 on the problems of catering for India's rural readership. The conference was convened at Agra under the auspices of IPI and the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung. 114pp, Paperback, ISBN 0861940318.

Forests and Chases of England and Wales, c. 1500 - c. 1850:

Towards a survey and analysis

'Lavishly produced... Splendid maps and illustrations... many insights and stimulating ideas' (Charles Watkins, Journal of Historical Geography)

Edited with John Langton, this collection of essays, now (2008) in its Second Printing with revised Foreword, challenges conventional scholarly and popular assumptions about the legally-defined areas known as 'Forests' and 'Chases'. For fuller details, see /forests/Publications.htm

Other publications

Monographs in preparation

● Saints of Wales: An inventory of religious dedications (Andover, Mass., and Aberystwyth, Celtic Studies Publications: University of Wales, Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies) (60,000 words).

● Cult and Culture: New Approaches to the Study of Religious Dedications, proposal invited for the series ‘Communities, Contexts and Cultures’ (80,000 words).

● The Cult of St Helen in Lincolnshire: Results of a Programme of Fieldwork, Explorations in Local History (Leicester, Centre for English Local History), text with general editor (30,000 words).

● Church (and other) dedications. A tool for local historians (Cambridge, Wolfson College Occasional Papers, forthcoming).

Edited volumes in preparation

● Saints in Context: Further studies towards a survey of cults and culture (Göttingen, F. Dürkopf), 50,000 words.

● Saints of the Balkans (Donington, Shaun Tyas). Co-edited with Mirjana Detelic, Institute for Balkan Studies, Belgrade, grant-aided by the Scouloudi Foundation (£500).

Articles in edited volumes

● ‘What’s in a name? St Michael, parish patron and cosmic figure’, in E. Bailey (ed.), Small is Cosmic: Millenial Issues in Parochial Context (Winterbourne, Glos., Winterbourne PCC, distributed by SPCK, London, 1998), pp. 1-10.

● ‘Authority, challenge and identity in three Gloucestershire saints’ cults’, in Donald Mowbray, Rhiannon Purdie, and Ian P. Wei (eds), Authority and Community in the Middle Ages (Stroud, Sutton, 1999), pp. 117-37.

● ‘Ghostly mentor, teacher of mysteries: Bartholomew, Guthlac, and the Apostle’s cult in early medieval England’, in G. Ferzoco and C. Muessig (eds), Medieval Monastic Education (Leicester, Leicester University Press, 2000), pp. 136-52.

● ‘Introduction: Diverse expressions, shared meanings: Surveying saints across cultural boundaries’ in G. Jones (ed.) Saints of Europe (Donington, Shaun Tyas, 2003), pp. 1-28.

● ‘Comparative research rewarded: religious dedications in England, Wales and Catalunya’ in G. Jones (ed.) Saints of Europe (Donington, Shaun Tyas, 2003), pp. 210-60.

● ‘Aspects of Helen: Byzantine and other influences on the reading of Constantine’s mother in the West’, in Miša Rakocija (ed.), Niš and Byzantium. Second Symposium, Niš, 3-5 June 2003. The Collection of Scientific Works II (Niš, University of Niš, 2004), pp. 13-27.

● ‘The market place: form, function and antecedents’, in D. Postles (ed.), The Market Place and the Place of the Market, Friends of the Centre for English Local History Paper 5 (Leicester, Friends of the Centre for English Local History, 2004), pp. 1-27.

● ‘Constantinople, 1204, renewal of interest in Imperial and other Byzantine cults in the West, and the deep roots of new traditions’, in Miša Rakocija (ed.), Niš and Byzantium. Third Symposium, Niš, 3-5 June 2004. The Collection of Scientific Works III (Niš, University of Niš, 2005), pp. 28-49.

● ‘Forest maps and the gazetteer’, in Langton and Jones, Forests and Chases of England and Wales c. 1500 - c. 1800 (Oxford, St John’s College/Oxbow Books, 2005), pp. 10-16.

● ‘Swanimotes, woodmotes, and courts of “free miners”’, in Langton and Jones, Forests and Chases of England and Wales c. 1500 - c. 1800 (Oxford, St John’s College/Oxbow Books, 2005), pp. 41-48.

● ‘Endnote: Glenbervie, Emmerich, and “Empire Forestry”’, in Langton and Jones, Forests and Chases of England and Wales c. 1500 - c. 1800 (Oxford, St John’s College/Oxbow Books, 2005), p. 89.

● ‘St Nicholas, icon of mercantile virtues: transition and continuity of a European myth’, in R. Littlejohns and S. Soncini (eds), Myths of Europe in Transition (Amsterdam, Rodope, 2006), 6,000 words.

● ‘Imaging Sant Magí: Souvenirs of a Catalan pilgrimage’, in S. Blick (ed.), Beyond Pilgrim Souvenirs and Secular Badges: Essays in Honour of Brian Spencer (Oxford, Oxbow Books, 2007), pp. 108-30.

● ‘The cult of Michael the Archangel in Britain. A survey, with some thoughts on the significance of Michael’s May feast and angelic roles in healing and baptism’, in Pierre Bouet, Giorgio Otranto, and André Vauchez (eds), Culto e santuari di san Michele nell’Europa medievale / Culte et sanctuaires de saint Michel dans l’Europe médiévale. Atti del Congresso Internazionale di studi (Bari – Monte Sant’Angelo, 5-8 aprile 2006), Bibliotheca Michaelica 1 (Bari, Edipuglia, 2007), pp. 147-82.

Articles in edited volumes, forthcoming

● ‘Lords, Churches and Region: Stamford’s churches and origins,’ in Phillip Lindley and Samantha Riches (eds), Stamford: Studies in History, Art and Architecture (Donington, Shaun Tyas).

● ‘Brycheiniog’, ‘Collen, St’, ‘Deiniol, St’, ‘Garmon, St’, ‘Germanus, St’, ‘Guthlac, St’, ‘Illtud, St’, ‘Penda’, ‘Teilo, St / Teliau / Eliud’, in J. Koch (ed.) Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopaedia (Santa Barbara, ABC-Clio, 2006), 5 vols.

● ‘Introduction: Putting saints in their places’, in G. Jones (ed.), Saints in Context (see above)

● ‘Cult for Kings? Devotion to Ss Peter and Paul as an examplar of the Trans-national Database and Atlas of Saints’ Cults’, G. Jones (ed.), Saints in Context (see above)

● ‘Introduction’, in M. Detelic and G. Jones (eds), Saints of the Balkans (see above)

 Journal articles

● ‘Holy wells and the Cult of St Helen’, Landscape History 8 (1986), pp. 59-76.

● ‘Penda’s footprint? Place-names containing personal names associated with those of early Mercian kings’, Nomina 21 (1998), pp. 29-62.

● ‘Dutch pilgrim sites: What interdisciplinary partnership can achieve’ (review of C. Caspers and P.-J. Margry, Bedevaartplaatsen in Nederland, 3 vols, Meertens Instituut, Amsterdam), Trans-national Database and Atlas of Saints’ Cults Newsletter 1, January 1999, p. 12.

● ‘Trans-national studies about Saint Magí’, Quaderns Barri de Sant Magí 9 (1999), pp. 27-31.

● ‘TASC (Trans-national Database and Atlas of Saints’ Cults): The Georgian dimension’, Caucasica, The Journal of Caucasian Studies 7 (2003), pp. 96-105.

● ‘Patrozinien in Deutschland: Towards a pilot project’, Concilium medii aevi 3 (2003), pp. 215-21.

● ‘New research on forests and chases, c. 1500 - c. 1850’, Society for Landscape Studies Newsletter, Spring/Summer 2005, pp. 6-9.

Journal articles in preparation

● ‘Harold Fox’ [obituary], Landscape History 29 (2008) (in press)

● ‘Bartholomew and Thunor: Intimations of rival religions, rival polities’, Saxon, Journal of the Sutton Hoo Society

● ‘Home and away: Hallaton’s hare-pie scramble and bottle-kicking’, Midland History.

● ‘Sport? Drama? Ritual?: plega, gleam, wacu in English place-names’, for submission to Nomina.

Review articles

● ‘D. M. Palliser (ed.), The Cambridge Urban History, Volume 1, 600-1540’, Urban History Newsletter 6, 1 (Autumn 2002), p. 15.

● ‘ Jane Cartwright (ed.), Celtic Hagiography and Saints’ Cults (Cardiff, University of Wales Press, 2003)’, The Medieval Review (on-line edition, http://www.hti.umich.edu/t/tmr/), 2005.

● ‘Victor Watts (ed.), The Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-Names‘, Speculum, 81, no. 2 (April, 2006), pp. 626-7.

● ‘Adrian Chadwick (ed.), Stories from the Landscape: Archaeologies of Inhabitation (Oxford, Archaeopress, 2004), Landscape History 27 (2005).

● ‘Catherine Tuck and Alan Bull, Landscapes of Desire (Stroud, Sutton, 2003)’, Landscape History 27 (2005).

● ‘Barry Cox, Leicestershire, Society of Place-Name Studies…[etc.]’, Leicestershire Archaeological and Historical Society Transactions 80 (2006). [Long review article.]

● ‘Amanda Richardson, The Forest, Park and Palace of Clarendon, c.1200-c.1650: Reconstructing an actual, conceptual and documented Wiltshire landscape  (Oxford, Archaeopress, 2005)’, Landscape History 28 (2006), pp. 117-8.

● ‘Elizabeth Rees, An Essential Guide to Celtic Sites and their Saints’, Archaeology in Wales, Council for British Archaeology: Wales/Cymru, 2006.

● ‘The land of the Dobunni: A series of papers relating to the transformation of the pagan, pre-Roman tribal lands into Christian, Anglo-Saxon Gloucestershire & Somerset : from the symposia of 2001 and 2002 [edited by Martin Ecclestone ... [et al.]] (Committee for Archaeology in Gloucestershire of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society, 2003)’, Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society, 2007.

● ‘J. Story, J. Bourne and R. Buckley (eds), Leicester Abbey: Medieval History, Archaeology and Manuscript Studies’, Leicestershire Archaeological and Historical Society Transactions 81 (2007).