Writing the book was a leap of faith. Andrew had never attempted anything like it before. He does not have a television and he reads a lot but his writing had been confined to reports on buildings and a couple of articles for the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB), for which he is full of praise and of which he is a William Morris Craft Fellow. These days Andrew is also a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and consultant to the Salisbury Diocesan Advisory Committee for the conservation of stonework and monuments. But he had certainly not written anything like the 80,000 words or so of The Stonemason. It is a privilege to feature on the cover of the reissued Repair of Ancient Buildings written by AR Powys in 1929. This invaluable work is available from the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings bookshop. The author, Andrew Ziminski, deserves all the praise that this captivating, thoughtful and, at times, humorous book has bestowed upon him. It is a broadly chronological look at construction in - and the construction of - Britain, from the barrows of the Neolithic, the distinct Roman and Saxon styles of building and up to the most recent of contemporary architectural styles, all of which document the ‘warp and weft of English history, nature and geology’. This well-woven tapestry of British history is further revealed and explored through the evolution of building techniques and materials.

Glover, Julian (25 June 2020). "The ES guide to the best books to read this summer". Evening Standard. Leigh-Pemberton, Robert (21 March 2020). "The Stonemason by Andrew Ziminski, review: an infectious quest for English history through its architecture". The Daily Telegraph. A life in Ruins – A Stonemason’s study of southern Britain’s ancient monuments, churches and bridges Thankfully in recent times, university-led archaeology and stone repairs using SPAB principles have been applied to the conservation of the Palace ruins. Some key techniques listed below, combine to mitigate further deterioration:Every region adds its flavour to the country. Edinburgh's grand designs exhausted local sandstone quarries. The granite and slate of quaint Cornish cottages is highly prized.

Ziminski, the stonemason of the title, describes the tall triple stone box of St Laurence at Bradford – one of the few Saxon churches surviving in more than fragments. He can also see it, not bare and chill as now, but as it was. “A golden cloth glistens with twisted threads, a beautiful covering for the sacred altar,” as Aldhelm (the seventh-century saint) wrote of such a church. “Here glistens the Cross of burnished gold adorned with silver and jewels.”

The schedule for the evening if attending in person:

I suppose that what I expected was much more about the trade of the stonemason and what a mason does. As I am currently doing research in traditional crafts, I was eager to learn more details about what a mason does and how he or she goes about their work. Based on Mr. Ziminski's impressive erudition and ability to convey ideas in the interview, I expected to find a similarly lucid explication of the work of the mason. In The Spectator Harry Mount notes his "unparalleled understanding of this country's stones", [4] while in Literary Review Will Wiles emphasises "the remarkable way that Ziminski weaves together architecture, craft, landscape, archaeology and natural history". [11] In History Today Gillian Darley describes Ziminski as "thoughtful, observant and well-informed", [1] while in The Times Literary Supplement Emma Wells writes that "Absorbing and engaging, The Stonemason perfectly captures the genius loci of the British landscape and its ancient buildings." [2]

Given the sometimes complex discussion of various kinds of stonework and the nature of the structures that he surveyed and repaired throughout the course of the book, I feel strongly that the book absolutely needed an early chapter that focused on the basic "hows" of stonemasonry. I know some of this thanks to works by Arnold Pacey and David Turnbull - among others - as well as the absolutely fascinating way that they could devise complex structures with very simple devices, something that I have also been exploring in early steam engineering and woodworking. Even holding the rest of the book "as is", such a descriptive and discursive chapter would have been of great benefit, and I would have forgiven much of the rest. In 1998 he was awarded a William Morris Craft Fellow by the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings. This advanced training scheme, designed originally to train future Clerks of Works, gives fellows a unique insight into the most sympathetic repair techniques to historic buildings and best practice in the field. Ziminski has been keeping journals since completing his fellowship with The Society For The Protection Of Ancient Buildings in 1998. The Society was set up by William Morris in 1887, and it has been at the forefront of protecting our built heritage ever since. It is a journey of ideological exploration of various kinds, ranging from the hopelessness of homeless drug takers to the appreciation of the Japanese concept of wabi sabi (the beauty of the imperfect) in conservation. Andrew Ziminski is the man who rebuilt the West Country. For 30 years, this skilled stonemason has renovated some of Britain’s greatest buildings. Along the way, he has acquired an unparalleled understanding of this country’s stones.

Attendance at Burlington House:

He has worked on a wide range of monuments. From the earliest surviving structure in England -The West Kennet Long Barrow to the Roman Baths in Bath and so on through countless Medieval Churches and Cathedrals to the monuments of the Industrial Revolution. It was as a schoolboy that Ziminski discovered a fascination for “the material aspects of the past, the tangible remnants”, digging on the North Downs. His father was taught to hew Scottish granite after the Second World War, and it was from him that his “gift of building materials, the understanding of which is the foundation of architecture” was inherited. Despite leaving school without any O levels, over three decades Ziminski has become one of the country’s foremost conservators. Morrison, Jonathan (29 May 2020). "The Stonemason by Andrew Ziminski review — dentists on a giant scale". The Times. There’s a strange quotation from Sir Thomas Browne, the agreeable 17th-century antiquary: “To have our sculs made drinking bowls and our bones turned into pipes to delight and sport our enemies are tragical abominations.” Ziminski applies that to the scattered bones of West Kennet, but Browne was arguing in Urne-Buriall that such abominations were avoided “in burning burials”, the Bronze-age cremations in Norfolk. Ziminski features “Samhain” in his chapter headings, and says that this, the first day of the Celtic calendar, was replaced by All Saints. The recipients of the November 2022 round of grants include investigative researcher and author Hil Aked, poet Laura Theis and Greek poet and writer Constantine Alexander Blintzios. Their writing projects range from memoirs examining the ‘courage and transformation’ of life as a quadriplegic, to a poetry collection about our relationship with the environment and the climate crisis, with a focus on the importance of hope and wonder, to the story of Britain’s medieval churches told ‘through their forgotten features, furnishings, and monuments.’