For over a thousand years stories of Christian belief and great moments in British history have filled the windows of our cathedrals and parish churches. The glow of painted and stained glass, its radiant colours and vivid pictures, has inspired generations of audiences and artists.This beautifully illustrated book traces the development of a unique art from its earliest beginnings in Anglo-Saxon England to the present day. It includes fascinating descriptions of medieval and renaissance glass, the religious upheavals of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries which saw thousands of windows destroyed, the rebirth of the craft in Georgian and Victorian Britain, and the pioneering of exciting new styles and techniques by modern artists.Explanations of how stained glass windows are made, the secrets of medieval glaziers, the subjects that can be seen and where the best examples from the seventh to twenty-first centuries can be found add to its pleasures.