The Flowering Hawthorn

This is a new edition of Hugh Ross Williamson's classic work originally published in 1962.  Kind permission was granted by his daughter, Julia Ashenden, to have this edition republished. Features illustrations by Matt Livermore. 

This is a delightful, exquisitely decorated, essay—a blending of legend and history—on the famous Thorn of Glastonbury which has flowered each Christmas and from which, wrote Chesterton, grew the whole story of Britain. With consummate artistry Hugh Ross Williamson explores the legends which involve Joseph of Arimathea, including the possibility that Jesus Christ may have come to England with Joseph. The great event of Joseph’s sojourn at Glastonbury was the building of the church…the first Christian church to be built in Britain. From the earliest days Glastonbury was to be pre-eminent as a Christian centre. To Glastonbury, as Avalon, came King Arthur; then King Alfred; and then Dunstan, perhaps the only other man in the pre-conquest period who approaches Arthur and Alfred in greatness. And the fame of the Abbey spread throughout the world. Pillage and desecration were to follow…and eventual restoration in this century. 

About the Author: Hugh Ross Williamson (1901–1978) was a prolific British historian, and a dramatist. Starting from a career in the literary world, and having a Nonconformist background, he became an Anglican priest in 1943. In 1955 he converted to Roman Catholicism and wrote many historical works in a Catholic apologist tone. In 1956 he published his autobiography, The Walled Garden. Williamson was critical of the introduction of the Modern Roman Liturgy, in his book, The Great Betrayal.