One of the great joys of Bloomsbury is the number of second-hand bookshops to explore. It was wonderful to discover this book recently. Written four months before the consecration of Coventry Cathedral on 25th May 1962, Basil Spence guides us through his eleven years of “toil, frustration, hope and ecstasy” as the cathedral was designed and built. My own office has not (yet) had the opportunity to work on such a prestigious commission but what is striking from Spence’s account of the design and development process is that we often share many of the same challenges, frustrations and joys – albeit on a much more modest scale.
