UNITY BY INCLUSION.

SIR NINIAN COMPER: AN INTRODUCTION TO HIS LIFE AND WORK WITH COMPLETE GAZETTEER 

By Anthony Symondson and Stephen Bucknall. Reading and London: Spire Books and The Ecclesiological Society. 2006. [pounds sterling]29.95

A distinguished architect and ecclesiological scholar, John Ninian Comper (1864-1960) was a major influence on the liturgical revival when the Anglican Church was still imbued with a vital Anglo-Catholicism, now largely dissipated. His masterpiece is St Mary's, Wellingborough, Northamptonshire (1904-40), expressing his belief in 'unity by inclusion', drawing on various styles. It is sobering to reflect on the fact that everything Comper sought to create in his designs, drawing upon his prodigious scholarship, is no longer thought to be of any importance by the contemporary Church of England: refinement, learning, and liturgical traditions have all been abandoned in favour of a wet, nauseating, and vulgar populism that is as repulsive as it is destructive. Comper believed that it was by beauty that hearts and minds were won, and that it was by mediocrity, half-truths, and ugliness that they were turned away. Unfortunately, many, if not most, modern clergy are suspicious and even terrified of beauty, with deplorable results.

Fr Symondson's erudite prose, the plentiful illustrations (many of which were made when the buildings and artefacts were just completed), and the Gazetteer by S. A. Bucknall contribute to the making of a most useful study celebrating Comper and his architecture. This splendid book also contains Comper's important essay Of the Atmosphere of a Church, first published in 1947. It is regrettable, however, that apart from Martin Charles's stunning cover picture of the interior of St Mary's, Wellingborough, there are no colour plates: Comper and colour went together, and black-and-white pictures hardly do justice to his marvellous, joyous, beautiful work. Symondson's penetrating intelligence, however, illuminates every page. He exposes Betjeman's two-faced behaviour, and suggests that his championing of Comper was not entirely helpful to the great man's reputation. It is to be hoped that Symondson will eventually give us the major monograph on Comper we have been awaiting, with colour plates and detailed references. As it is, this new publication is warmly welcomed.