The Holy Box (Paperback)

Sir Stanley Spencer RA CBE worked at the Beaufort Military Hospitalas a medical orderly during the First World War. He later served onthe forgotten Macedonian Front with a field ambulance unit and aninfantry regiment. He saw action, was traumatized and suffered acutebouts of malaria. Five years after the Armistice he started makingnumerous drawings recalling in great detail his war service.So impressed were two generous patrons, the Behrends, that theybuilt a small chapel near Newbury to house a cycle of paintings. Forfive years Spencer toiled in the chapel. The resulting murals are quiteextraordinary; they stand comparison with the great painted chapelsof early Renaissance Italy. The Sandham Memorial Chapel ranksalongside the poetry of Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon, andBritten’s War Requiem, as one of the most moving monuments to20th-century war.