Books on this subject are few and the older ones are hard
to find. The best introduction is E Clive Rouse, Medieval Wall
Paintings, Shire Publications, 1991. Brief but expert treatment of the
subject, with good pictures, a Gazetteer and a very useful Bibliography. Some
cathedrals and larger churches may have this book on sale inside.
Also useful are:
A Caiger-Smith, English Medieval Mural
Paintings, OUP, 1963. Thorough and scholarly, with good
pictures.
H Munro Cautley, Suffolk Churches and their treasures, 5th edition with Supplement, Boydell Press, 1982. Exhaustive coverage of Suffolk Churches.
John Harvey, Gothic England:A Survey of National
Culture, 2nd edn. Batsford, 1945. Contentious, and (some say) eccentric
at times, but stimulating.
MR James, Suffolk &
Norfolk, 1987 edn. Alastair Press, Suffolk. Subtitled ‘A Perambulation
of the two counties with notices of their history and their ancient buildings’.
Still superb, still indispensable.
Frank Kendon, Mural Paintings
in English Churches during the Middle Ages, John Lane/Bodley Head, 1923.
A bit dated, but particularly useful for its summarising of material
from:-
CE Keyser, List of Buildings having Mural
Decoration, London (HMSO), 1883 (‘Keyser’s List’). Now out of date, but
an updated version is in preparation under the supervision of the Courtauld
Institute.
EW Tristram, English Medieval Wall Painting : The
12th Century, London, 1944.
EW Tristram, English
Medieval Wall Painting : The 13th Century, London, 1950.
EW
Tristram, English Medieval Wall Painting : The 14th Century,
London, 1954.
EW Tristram & T Borenius, English
Medieval Wall Painting, London, 1929.
Professor Tristram’s monumental
series of volumes is comprehensive, magisterial, and, the odd eccentric
iconographical reading apart, reliable.
JC Wall Medieval Wall Paintings, London, n.d. (before 1925). Invaluable for Wall’s drawings, some of them of paintings now vanished.
PG Walwin,
St.Christopher Today and Yesterday, Gloucester, 1968.
HC
Whaite, St. Christopher in English Medieval Wallpainting,
London, 1929. A volume devoted to the most frequently found of all subjects