The Rule and Exercises of Holy Dying

Cally Hammond: Jeremy Taylor was once a fellow of my college, and in 2013, the 400th anniversary of his birth, I did my best to mark his importance and encourage others to try his writing. His book Holy Dying brought a small-c ‘catholic’ style of piety to a 17th-century English church which was hungry for such nurture. His spirituality was essentially practical and plain-speaking, not overloaded with learning and references, but making use of the most vivid imagery, and with a power to evoke the pathos of other people’s lives and bring the reader to a new and better kind of piety.  A wonderful book. I’d have it in my personal top 10.