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In The Steps of the Master
Here is a portrait of the Holy Land as a physical embodiment of faith. Dramatically conjuring the beauty of Israel's countryside, In the Steps of the Master also evokes the all-consuming passions and deep-rooted mysteries of Jerusalemand while much has changed, as Morton says, the essential nature of the sites he visits has not.
Hardcover
First published October 1, 1934
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About the author
H.V. Morton
113 books50 followersHenry Canova Vollam (H.V.) Morton, FRSL, was a journalist and pioneering travel writer from Lancashire, England, best known for his prolific and popular books on Britain and the Holy Land. He first achieved fame in 1923 when, while working for the Daily Express, he scooped the official Times correspondent during the coverage of the opening of the Tomb of Tutankhamon by Howard Carter in Egypt.
In the late 1940s he moved to South Africa, settling near Cape Town in Somerset West and became a South African citizen.
In the late 1940s he moved to South Africa, settling near Cape Town in Somerset West and became a South African citizen.
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
April 29, 2021
A wonderful and almost magical book, first published in 1934 by the famous travel writer H.V. Morton (though I did not know he was that when I picked it up). His travels through the Holy Land during that twilight zone period known to history as the British Mandate (1917-1947), fell between Ottoman rule and the founding of modern Israel. As a good travel writer said, travel writing is also time travel and in this book you literally get a time machine to some of the most fascinating times in the history of the earth, early Israel, the coming of Christ and his ministry, the Roman Empire, the Crusades, the Ottomans and WW1 which rearranged the map and world history. It is especially valuable as many if not most of the places he visits have long since become tourist traps, but were anything but that in the early 1930s. Jerusalem of course, Jericho, Hebron, Caesarea, the Dead Sea, the Sea of Galilee, the great Crusader castles Krak de Chevaliers and El Kerak, Petra and more are among the highlights. His encounters with and descriptions of the native population, mainly Arab Bedouin are priceless. The focus however, always returns to the Master and this is a highly reverent but instructive tour of where Jesus went, what he said and did. Morton explains much about the Gospels and other Biblical occurrences are seen through the prism of the land and it's people. Yeah, a few might complain about something not quite PC, but this a wonderful and entirely credible account of the settings and times that changed the world. I may never get there, but if I did a copy of 'In The Steps of the Master' would be a fine companion.
February 6, 2008
Reading it now - like a travel diary of Palestine in the 1930's, with the author writing in first person, who stops and reads his Bible (KJV)as he travels the Holy Land.
August 12, 2016
Rereading at bedtime. Such a great book.
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I'd give this five stars except that Morton seemed to have an unreasoning dislike of Jerusalem in the beginning of the book which felt like anti-Semitism. I'm not one that tends to notice that sort of thing but it did put a sour feel on that part. Luckily I was able to flip to where he begins touring the countryside and then it is vintage H.V. Morton.
No wonder he was such a popular travel writer. No one I know is so good at weaving sense of place, lyrical descriptions, personal encounter, and historical depth into their writing. In Search of London is still my favorite but this book is jockeying for second place (with In the Steps of St. Paul). Definitely recommended.
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I'd give this five stars except that Morton seemed to have an unreasoning dislike of Jerusalem in the beginning of the book which felt like anti-Semitism. I'm not one that tends to notice that sort of thing but it did put a sour feel on that part. Luckily I was able to flip to where he begins touring the countryside and then it is vintage H.V. Morton.
No wonder he was such a popular travel writer. No one I know is so good at weaving sense of place, lyrical descriptions, personal encounter, and historical depth into their writing. In Search of London is still my favorite but this book is jockeying for second place (with In the Steps of St. Paul). Definitely recommended.
August 2, 2016
H. V. Morton’s travelogue remains a highly readable blend of observation, historical knowledge, and imaginative reconstruction. As a one-time bestseller, the book is an important source for how the "Holy Land" was interpreted for a popular audience in the 1930s, and for how the Biblical archaeology of the time was incorporated into contemporary "middle brow" popular Christianity. Morton sentimentalizes that through the Bedouin "Abraham lives on into the modern world", and he writes that "the Bible is a most accurate guide to the life of modern Palestine", but walking "in the steps of the Master" does not just mean contemplating "Bible times" through the peoples, ruins, and landscapes of the present; Morton is also attentive to the region’s later history and contemporary reality.
In particular, the trauma of the First World War is still fresh in Morton's writing. An early passage describes the new Scottish church in Jerusalem, prompting the author to recall the Scots "who died in the waterless deserts, in the battlefields of Gaza, among the mountains of Judea, in the stifling plains of Jericho and the Jordan Valley". Later, he describes the Jerusalem War Cemetery on Mount Scopus, where "there are 2,180 soldiers and airmen of the United Kingdom lying there, and 143 soldiers from Australia and 34 from New Zealand", along with the grave of Charlotte Berrie, an Australian nurse. The Great War also features in his historical imaginings: one passage describes Christians from Pella returning to Jerusalem after 70 AD and wandering "about the mounds and ruins… exactly like the peasants of Ypres and Cambrai."
Morton is constantly on the lookout for connections between Palestine and Britain. Outside the Holy Sepulchre he sees the grave of Philip d'Aubigny, "one of the nobiles homines mentioned in the Magna Charta as a member of the council whose advice was taken by King John"; at the Church of the Nativity, he looks up and wonders if there is "anything left of the English oaks with which Edward IV reconstructed the roof"; and at the Hill of Djoun, he sees the grave of Hester Stanhope, William Pitt's eccentric niece, still remembered locally as "el Sitt" ("the Lady"): "A strange resting place for the grand-daughter of the great Earl of Chatham". Perhaps inevitably, the High Commissioner for Palestine (not named, although it would have been Arthur Grenfell Wauchope at this time) is "the successor of Pilate".
Britain is also used to make general comparisons, even sometimes at the risk of incongruity: "Loch Lamond is eleven miles longer than the Sea of Galilee, but it is nowhere as wide"; Mount Carmel "looked a bit like Edinburgh Castle"; the memory of Ibrahim Pasha, who drove Muslims out of Bethlehem a hundred years previously, "lingers in Bethlehem much as that of Judge Jeffreys lingers in Wiltshire"; and the river Jordan puts him in mind of "the Avon in Warwickshire".
Morton has a particularly keen eye for the region's Christian diversity. He links the Christian Arabs with the Crusader legacy, noting that "their faces are Flemish and French, and, perhaps, English", but he also recounts hearing about a Christian nomad family near Madeba called the Azizat, who are honoured among Muslims for warning them about a planned massacre by the Crusaders. Visiting the Holy Sepulchre, he writes touchingly of a Bulgarian peasant pilgrim: "Never in all my life have I beheld peace and contentment written so clearly on a human face." He adds with sadness that "there are no Russian pilgrims today" – not knowing of course that the same would be true for the rest of Eastern Europe within a few years – although he finds a small community of impoverished Russians living at Ain Kerim.
However, although Morton’s Catholic religiosity is married to an ecumenical temperament, one has to wince at his description of Abyssinian (Ethiopian) Christianity as "a wonderful museum of heresies and queer odds and ends of Judaism and paganism", and it is noticeable that, in contrast to his account of the War cemetery, the British religious presence is downplayed. The Anglican Christ Church in Jerusalem is passed over in silence, while Saint George's Cathedral receives only a fleeting reference. He is also politely dismissive of Gordon's Calvary (today better known as the Garden Tomb), a space where first-century Palestine is particularly imagined through the lens of England.
Morton also writes sympathetically about the Jewish and Muslim presence, although the indulgent condescension he inflicts on the Abyssinian Christians is apparent again when it comes to the Druze:
The concept of "in the steps of the Master" is taken rather loosely, given that Morton travels as far out of the way as Petra – he confesses that he "surrendered to the temptation". Given Petra’s fame today, it is instructive to be reminded of its former romantic obscurity. The site "defeated the efforts of Robinson and Laborde. Irby and Mangles had to be content with a long-distance view through their telescopes, and even Dean Stanley, travelling with an escort as recently as 1853, approached the dead city among the rocks with the knowledge that he might be stopped by armed Bedouin and forced to turn back." The first Western visitor, Johann Ludwig Burckhardt, had got there in the early years of the nineteenth century disguised as a Muslim.
At Petra, Morton indulges in a bit of Orientalism as he contemplates local Arabs performing a strange and ecstatic dance involving knives amid the ruins:
Morton's story also includes some specific personalities of the day: travelling to Jericho, he is warned about Abu Jildah, "a brigand who has short several policemen"; at Beersheba, he attends a tribal court being held by the local governor, Arif el Arif, who is romantically introduced as a former "Arabian Bonnie Prince Charlie". Arif had had "an extraordinary series of adventures" in China after being captured by the Russians during the war, and he had formerly been in conflict with the British. Cases heard by the court included "raids on animals, blood feuds or murder, breaches of desert etiquette and disputes over land, money, and so forth". Arif defended the practice of an ordeal by fire, in which a suspect is made to lick white-hot metal: a "guilty man is so terrified that this mouth goes dry and he gets terribly burned", he explained. Also at Beersheba, Morton visits Flinders Petrie's camp; he is shown three ruined palaces and "Celtic ear-rings of Irish gold exactly like the prehistoric gold ornaments in the Dublin Museum". At Tabgha Hospice, he enjoys he hospitality of Father John Täpper, and chats with an Australian tourist.
The final chapter returns to Jerusalem, where Morton experiences Passover with a Jewish family, observes the Muslim Nebi Musa pilgrimage (noting how the revellers pronounced curses against the Zionists), and describes some Eastern Christian Easter ceremonies. Palm Sunday includes an Armenian "Ceremony of the Second Coming" and a Syrian "Ceremony of the Bridegroom’s Arrival"; Good Friday sees the Russian "Ceremony of the Winding-Sheet", and an "Entombment" by the Syrians, during which a crucifix is placed in a coffin. Attending the Abyssinian "Searching for the Body of Christ" ceremony, Morton notes the use of the sistra, as found in Egyptian tombs. There is also a procession in which Greek Patriarch is undressed, "probably the only occasion when a crowd sees the Greek Patriarch, so to speak, en déshabille, because even in death the Orthodox Patriarchs, clothed in gorgeous vestments, are carried to their grave tied in their chairs and lowered into a vault where about twenty-four of their number sit clothed in the mouldering relics of their glory."
Watching the ceremony of the Holy Fire from the Armenian gallery, Morton writes that it “did not appear to burn the [recipients] as they licked the flames and ran them over their faces, neither did it singe their hair”. Perhaps Morton’s sense of smell failed him here – I have attended the same event, the distinctive odour of burnt hair is one of my strongest memories. Morton notes a song sung by the crowd: "O Jews, O Jews / Your feast is the feast of monkeys, / Our feast is the feast of Christ!"
At several points during the book, Morton pauses to reimagine stories about Jesus, John the Baptist, and other Biblical figures, presented in a semi-novelistic way. At the end of the last chapter, he turns to the Passion and Resurrection, and here the reverence tips into devotionalism and even propaganda, explicitly drawing on Frank Morison's apologia Who Moved the Stone? for part of his historical rumination. His imagining of Pilate's thought-processes and motivations includes what in retrospect is a troubling passage; this is his suggestion that reluctant Pilate perhaps caved in to the crowd because he
Here it is difficult not to suspect that Strabo is a means to convey Morton’s own anti-Semitism, which was later highlighted by his biographer Matthew Bartholomew (no relation). However, this particular prejudice is not apparent in the book's various references to Orthodox Jews and Zionists, although his portrait of Jewish religion in the first century follows familiar stereotypes. He writes that "by going into Galilee Jesus performed a symbolic act. He turned his back on the world of the Old Testament, and from the moment of that turning away the New Testament begins". This is an idiosyncratic expression of a perspective that has dated badly, both historically and theologically.
In any case, Morton's 1962 introduction for a later edition discusses Chaim Weizmann with appreciation. Once again, Morton's purpose here is to link Britain to the land of Jesus, explaining how Weizmann’s assistance to the war effort was a factor in British support for the National Home for the Jews in Palestine, which in turn led to the State of Israel, "a small state that is working out its destiny in a dangerous and threatening world."
The 1962 introduction also uses the opportunity to praise the Franciscan architect Antonio Barluzzi, who designed several important sanctuaries at pilgrimage sites. Morton met him in his cell in Terra Sancta Delegation near the Lateran just before his death.
In particular, the trauma of the First World War is still fresh in Morton's writing. An early passage describes the new Scottish church in Jerusalem, prompting the author to recall the Scots "who died in the waterless deserts, in the battlefields of Gaza, among the mountains of Judea, in the stifling plains of Jericho and the Jordan Valley". Later, he describes the Jerusalem War Cemetery on Mount Scopus, where "there are 2,180 soldiers and airmen of the United Kingdom lying there, and 143 soldiers from Australia and 34 from New Zealand", along with the grave of Charlotte Berrie, an Australian nurse. The Great War also features in his historical imaginings: one passage describes Christians from Pella returning to Jerusalem after 70 AD and wandering "about the mounds and ruins… exactly like the peasants of Ypres and Cambrai."
Morton is constantly on the lookout for connections between Palestine and Britain. Outside the Holy Sepulchre he sees the grave of Philip d'Aubigny, "one of the nobiles homines mentioned in the Magna Charta as a member of the council whose advice was taken by King John"; at the Church of the Nativity, he looks up and wonders if there is "anything left of the English oaks with which Edward IV reconstructed the roof"; and at the Hill of Djoun, he sees the grave of Hester Stanhope, William Pitt's eccentric niece, still remembered locally as "el Sitt" ("the Lady"): "A strange resting place for the grand-daughter of the great Earl of Chatham". Perhaps inevitably, the High Commissioner for Palestine (not named, although it would have been Arthur Grenfell Wauchope at this time) is "the successor of Pilate".
Britain is also used to make general comparisons, even sometimes at the risk of incongruity: "Loch Lamond is eleven miles longer than the Sea of Galilee, but it is nowhere as wide"; Mount Carmel "looked a bit like Edinburgh Castle"; the memory of Ibrahim Pasha, who drove Muslims out of Bethlehem a hundred years previously, "lingers in Bethlehem much as that of Judge Jeffreys lingers in Wiltshire"; and the river Jordan puts him in mind of "the Avon in Warwickshire".
Morton has a particularly keen eye for the region's Christian diversity. He links the Christian Arabs with the Crusader legacy, noting that "their faces are Flemish and French, and, perhaps, English", but he also recounts hearing about a Christian nomad family near Madeba called the Azizat, who are honoured among Muslims for warning them about a planned massacre by the Crusaders. Visiting the Holy Sepulchre, he writes touchingly of a Bulgarian peasant pilgrim: "Never in all my life have I beheld peace and contentment written so clearly on a human face." He adds with sadness that "there are no Russian pilgrims today" – not knowing of course that the same would be true for the rest of Eastern Europe within a few years – although he finds a small community of impoverished Russians living at Ain Kerim.
However, although Morton’s Catholic religiosity is married to an ecumenical temperament, one has to wince at his description of Abyssinian (Ethiopian) Christianity as "a wonderful museum of heresies and queer odds and ends of Judaism and paganism", and it is noticeable that, in contrast to his account of the War cemetery, the British religious presence is downplayed. The Anglican Christ Church in Jerusalem is passed over in silence, while Saint George's Cathedral receives only a fleeting reference. He is also politely dismissive of Gordon's Calvary (today better known as the Garden Tomb), a space where first-century Palestine is particularly imagined through the lens of England.
Morton also writes sympathetically about the Jewish and Muslim presence, although the indulgent condescension he inflicts on the Abyssinian Christians is apparent again when it comes to the Druze:
It has often been stated that the Druse religion is a queer relic of the grossest form of paganism mixed with Christianity and further confused by misunderstood Greek philosophy… I once talked to an ex-member of the French Foreign Legion who swore that he had seen representations of the Golden Calf in a Druse mosque. The central fact of their faith, however, is the belief that the lunatic El-Hakem bi-amr-Illah, Fatimate Caliph of Egypt, was an incarnation of the Deity.
The concept of "in the steps of the Master" is taken rather loosely, given that Morton travels as far out of the way as Petra – he confesses that he "surrendered to the temptation". Given Petra’s fame today, it is instructive to be reminded of its former romantic obscurity. The site "defeated the efforts of Robinson and Laborde. Irby and Mangles had to be content with a long-distance view through their telescopes, and even Dean Stanley, travelling with an escort as recently as 1853, approached the dead city among the rocks with the knowledge that he might be stopped by armed Bedouin and forced to turn back." The first Western visitor, Johann Ludwig Burckhardt, had got there in the early years of the nineteenth century disguised as a Muslim.
At Petra, Morton indulges in a bit of Orientalism as he contemplates local Arabs performing a strange and ecstatic dance involving knives amid the ruins:
One has the feeling in Palestine that the civilisation that crashed into ruin was very like our own. One has more in common with the fallen pillars of Jerash than with the finest Moslem mosque. Our world, imperfect as it is, is still a Christian world and has its roots in Christianity. Everything that is against Christianity, no matter how trivial it may appear, is a spy from the forces of savagery which have always waited ready with drawn knives to dance among the ruins.
Morton's story also includes some specific personalities of the day: travelling to Jericho, he is warned about Abu Jildah, "a brigand who has short several policemen"; at Beersheba, he attends a tribal court being held by the local governor, Arif el Arif, who is romantically introduced as a former "Arabian Bonnie Prince Charlie". Arif had had "an extraordinary series of adventures" in China after being captured by the Russians during the war, and he had formerly been in conflict with the British. Cases heard by the court included "raids on animals, blood feuds or murder, breaches of desert etiquette and disputes over land, money, and so forth". Arif defended the practice of an ordeal by fire, in which a suspect is made to lick white-hot metal: a "guilty man is so terrified that this mouth goes dry and he gets terribly burned", he explained. Also at Beersheba, Morton visits Flinders Petrie's camp; he is shown three ruined palaces and "Celtic ear-rings of Irish gold exactly like the prehistoric gold ornaments in the Dublin Museum". At Tabgha Hospice, he enjoys he hospitality of Father John Täpper, and chats with an Australian tourist.
The final chapter returns to Jerusalem, where Morton experiences Passover with a Jewish family, observes the Muslim Nebi Musa pilgrimage (noting how the revellers pronounced curses against the Zionists), and describes some Eastern Christian Easter ceremonies. Palm Sunday includes an Armenian "Ceremony of the Second Coming" and a Syrian "Ceremony of the Bridegroom’s Arrival"; Good Friday sees the Russian "Ceremony of the Winding-Sheet", and an "Entombment" by the Syrians, during which a crucifix is placed in a coffin. Attending the Abyssinian "Searching for the Body of Christ" ceremony, Morton notes the use of the sistra, as found in Egyptian tombs. There is also a procession in which Greek Patriarch is undressed, "probably the only occasion when a crowd sees the Greek Patriarch, so to speak, en déshabille, because even in death the Orthodox Patriarchs, clothed in gorgeous vestments, are carried to their grave tied in their chairs and lowered into a vault where about twenty-four of their number sit clothed in the mouldering relics of their glory."
Watching the ceremony of the Holy Fire from the Armenian gallery, Morton writes that it “did not appear to burn the [recipients] as they licked the flames and ran them over their faces, neither did it singe their hair”. Perhaps Morton’s sense of smell failed him here – I have attended the same event, the distinctive odour of burnt hair is one of my strongest memories. Morton notes a song sung by the crowd: "O Jews, O Jews / Your feast is the feast of monkeys, / Our feast is the feast of Christ!"
At several points during the book, Morton pauses to reimagine stories about Jesus, John the Baptist, and other Biblical figures, presented in a semi-novelistic way. At the end of the last chapter, he turns to the Passion and Resurrection, and here the reverence tips into devotionalism and even propaganda, explicitly drawing on Frank Morison's apologia Who Moved the Stone? for part of his historical rumination. His imagining of Pilate's thought-processes and motivations includes what in retrospect is a troubling passage; this is his suggestion that reluctant Pilate perhaps caved in to the crowd because he
remembered Strabo’s comment on the influence of the Alexandrian Jews in his time: "These Jews," said Strabo, "have penetrated in every country, and it would be hard to find anywhere in the whole world a single place that has not had to put up with this race, and in which it did not obtain the mastery."
Here it is difficult not to suspect that Strabo is a means to convey Morton’s own anti-Semitism, which was later highlighted by his biographer Matthew Bartholomew (no relation). However, this particular prejudice is not apparent in the book's various references to Orthodox Jews and Zionists, although his portrait of Jewish religion in the first century follows familiar stereotypes. He writes that "by going into Galilee Jesus performed a symbolic act. He turned his back on the world of the Old Testament, and from the moment of that turning away the New Testament begins". This is an idiosyncratic expression of a perspective that has dated badly, both historically and theologically.
In any case, Morton's 1962 introduction for a later edition discusses Chaim Weizmann with appreciation. Once again, Morton's purpose here is to link Britain to the land of Jesus, explaining how Weizmann’s assistance to the war effort was a factor in British support for the National Home for the Jews in Palestine, which in turn led to the State of Israel, "a small state that is working out its destiny in a dangerous and threatening world."
The 1962 introduction also uses the opportunity to praise the Franciscan architect Antonio Barluzzi, who designed several important sanctuaries at pilgrimage sites. Morton met him in his cell in Terra Sancta Delegation near the Lateran just before his death.
April 25, 2009
A very well written book by a man who is both imaginative and realistic. His descriptions of places were beautiful (e.g., the geographical "break" between Judea and the Galilee). His people are wonderful (e.g., the Abyssinian monks, the inhabitants of Bania where he becomes "Father of the Dog"). His text had historical, religious, and adventurer interest. He is really quite a good travel writer. He is definitely a Christian and I found his connections between what he observed and what the gospel stories describe to be very thought provoking --- that is, how does one decipher the physical reality from the sparse text. Very nice. What a stroke of luck that I stumbled across his book in a "junk store".
I am surprised that the publisher's blurb mentions this book in the same breath with Bruce Feiler's "Walking the Bible". Mr. Morton actually meets his subject head on without benefit of a "Virgil" like Mr. Feiler. Although Mr. Morton is certainly not politically correct in his observations of people and wrote his book in another age, he is humorous and actively compassionate (as when he brings pounds and pounds of rice to the Bedouins of Petra simply because he heard they were destitute) and actually knows who and what he is. I found Feiler's book to be a bit adolescent and unfocused. It had so few judgements that I couldn't see its point.
I am surprised that the publisher's blurb mentions this book in the same breath with Bruce Feiler's "Walking the Bible". Mr. Morton actually meets his subject head on without benefit of a "Virgil" like Mr. Feiler. Although Mr. Morton is certainly not politically correct in his observations of people and wrote his book in another age, he is humorous and actively compassionate (as when he brings pounds and pounds of rice to the Bedouins of Petra simply because he heard they were destitute) and actually knows who and what he is. I found Feiler's book to be a bit adolescent and unfocused. It had so few judgements that I couldn't see its point.
February 18, 2017
This book was sent to me by a pen-pal friend who was living overseas as a DOD teacher. This book chronicles the author's tour through the holy lands of Palestine, Syria, and Lebanon in the early 1930s before Israel became a state. The author's writings, photographs, lucid descriptions, and historic, biblical parallels of the areas and towns where Jesus walked and lived are fascinating and compelling. I couldn't put this book down. I'm seriously considering having this classic book rebound in leather. Thank you, Annie, for the wonderful gift!
October 13, 2019
This is a wonderful Bible Study book as the geographical features of Palestine are very pertinent to the New Testament. Although written many years ago (1934), the descriptions make it so helpful in following Jesus through his ministry. Today's land is much different, but this book provides so many interesting tidbits.
February 25, 2012
Beautiful writing, wonderful imagery. Made me feel I was there with him. I must give it back to its owner but will be buying my own copy :)
September 22, 2023
I think I'd have hated to travel with Morton as he comes across as quite arrogant, rude and critical of anyone who isn't a middle-class, white, English Anglican! But I do enjoy reading his travel books - he is brilliant at conveying a sense of place and also a sense of history.
In the Steps of the Master is particularly enjoyable, as Morton travels around the Holy Land, comparing what he sees with the scenes described in the Bible. I was pleasantly surprised, considering how intolerant he usually is, at how respectful he was of the various expressions of faith he encounters, and he comes across as a much more complex individual than I expected from previous books I have read. For example, Morton was known in later life to espouse anti-Semitic views, and in the latter part of this book, when he is describing the locations and events around the Crucifixion of Christ, he comes across as quite anti-Jewish. And yet just a few days earlier, he had celebrated Passover with a Jewish family and at the end "said good-night to the kindly folk who had admitted me, a stranger and a Gentile, to this intimate glimpse of an ancient faith..." And he obviously has a sincere and reverent belief in Jesus...who was Jewish! At several points in the book he appears as patronising toward 'peasants', talking about how to 'manage' local people, and yet in other places, he treats the poor with deep respect, trying to offer help and grieving that he can't do more. It left me with the impression of a conflicted man, torn between different impulses who sadly gave into the wrong impulses too often.
Morton is excellent at summoning up Palestine of the 1930s and also Palestine at the time of Christ. He travelled round with a Bible at hand, comparing what he was reading of various locations with what he was seeing in the present day, and it was interesting to see how little had changed in 2,000 years. I just wish he'd stopped writing a few pages before the end, as that is where most of the anti-Semitism comes. So while I enjoyed much of this book, it's not one I feel I can 'recommend'.
In the Steps of the Master is particularly enjoyable, as Morton travels around the Holy Land, comparing what he sees with the scenes described in the Bible. I was pleasantly surprised, considering how intolerant he usually is, at how respectful he was of the various expressions of faith he encounters, and he comes across as a much more complex individual than I expected from previous books I have read. For example, Morton was known in later life to espouse anti-Semitic views, and in the latter part of this book, when he is describing the locations and events around the Crucifixion of Christ, he comes across as quite anti-Jewish. And yet just a few days earlier, he had celebrated Passover with a Jewish family and at the end "said good-night to the kindly folk who had admitted me, a stranger and a Gentile, to this intimate glimpse of an ancient faith..." And he obviously has a sincere and reverent belief in Jesus...who was Jewish! At several points in the book he appears as patronising toward 'peasants', talking about how to 'manage' local people, and yet in other places, he treats the poor with deep respect, trying to offer help and grieving that he can't do more. It left me with the impression of a conflicted man, torn between different impulses who sadly gave into the wrong impulses too often.
Morton is excellent at summoning up Palestine of the 1930s and also Palestine at the time of Christ. He travelled round with a Bible at hand, comparing what he was reading of various locations with what he was seeing in the present day, and it was interesting to see how little had changed in 2,000 years. I just wish he'd stopped writing a few pages before the end, as that is where most of the anti-Semitism comes. So while I enjoyed much of this book, it's not one I feel I can 'recommend'.
March 8, 2022
Before I read this book, a travel book of the Holy Land written in 1934 wouldn't have rated very high on my list. But in Morton's hands this book comes alive and off we go to the Holy Land (and with the added pleasure of doing it pre-Israel when Palestine was still a colony of Great Britain!). Morton's writing is so clear, so vivid, so rich, and Morton is so knowledgeable and well-read (especially Biblically) he makes many of today's so-called "writers" seem like freshmen journalists that should considered a change in major. "In The Steps Of The Master" takes us to every major site in Christ's life, but another thing that makes this such an excellent book is that Morton keeps his focus on Christ and he is really gifted in putting us back in history, either during Christ life or some point since. Morton takes us to Jerusalem (the Holy Sepulcher, the Garden of Gethsemane, Golgotha, the Mount of Olives, Dome Of The Rock) to Bethany to Jericho to the Dead Sea, to Bethlehem, to Samaria, to the Sea Of Galilee, to Caesarea Philippi to Sidon, to Syria, to Lebanon and on and on... Morton is certainly a masterful writer and historian (I particularly liked the way he would stop along the way and explain the large influence the Crusaders had on Palestine). The book was simple a joy (with wonderful pictures that the author himself took, circa early 1930s), particularly in light of all the massive changes in the Holy Land since, especially the establishment of Israel in 1948. One of my all-time favorite books.
December 16, 2023
I bought an original copy in a second hand bookshop or charity shop in Windermere. One of our local reverends had passed away and his book collection including this very precious book was seemingly donated to Charity.
Once I started reading this ( age 30 ) found it hard to put down, I read it in very little time, and then read it again.
The reverend had followed in his footsteps literally and collected local newspapers and there were clippings in the relevant part of this historical and very inspirational and gained so much knowledge of our Saviour, mediator, and redeemer by following in His footsteps with this book. I can highly recommend reading it and also praying o gain knowledge of the truthfulness of what is written.
Fascinating!
Once I started reading this ( age 30 ) found it hard to put down, I read it in very little time, and then read it again.
The reverend had followed in his footsteps literally and collected local newspapers and there were clippings in the relevant part of this historical and very inspirational and gained so much knowledge of our Saviour, mediator, and redeemer by following in His footsteps with this book. I can highly recommend reading it and also praying o gain knowledge of the truthfulness of what is written.
Fascinating!
February 11, 2019
This book gives a look at what is probably a lost world. i have not been tothe Holy Land, but i doubt if anyone would find it quite the same as H. V. Morton describes it. His description of the places where Jesus walked and his reflections on the Gospel stories enriched by being onthe spot make for fascinating reading. I recommend this book without reservation!
May 12, 2019
Mr. Morton's travelogues are always entertaining, if possibly not as accurate as they might be. Morton has been faulted for his insensitivity, but to be fair to him he is insensitive to everyone.
My copy is on an old B & N Nook, and is not the modern edition with commentary, which I wish I had read. But the old one was free.
My copy is on an old B & N Nook, and is not the modern edition with commentary, which I wish I had read. But the old one was free.
July 1, 2025
Written in the 1930s, the book straddles the time from antiquity to modernity, when there were motor cars driving in the safely of the British Mandate, Bedouin tribes with their own laws, undiscovered archeological sites, khans and caves. So much for the Western reader to get their head round. Jesus was born in a cave! As well as so much cultural information, it is beautifully written with plenty of vignettes to savour. The background information is delicious: Morton has read Josephus and other Roman historians so you don’t have to.
I compare this with Patrick Leigh Fermor’s series beginning with A Time of Gifts, which was written ant the same time, only H V Morton is more accessible. I rarely give out five stars for things, as I am picky, but this gets it.
The only warning I would give to fellow readers is to buy the original edition if you can. I bought the De Capo Press 2002 edition, but it is a lesser thing. It is a facsimile of the original, with no photos. The maps were reduced in size — I would need a magnifying lens to read them, and the most important bits seem to be down in the crease. Therefore inaccessible.
The I don’t know what the extra two introductory essays add to it. We know the State of Israel has changed things entirely from 1945 onwards. The increase in population and prosperity has altered the landscape and people beyond recognition. Morton recorded it all for us, just in time.
Fortunately the title has yet to be discovered, or HVMorton is out of favour (the book is of its time, with attitudes of the time) so I was able to get an original edition fairly cheaply.
I compare this with Patrick Leigh Fermor’s series beginning with A Time of Gifts, which was written ant the same time, only H V Morton is more accessible. I rarely give out five stars for things, as I am picky, but this gets it.
The only warning I would give to fellow readers is to buy the original edition if you can. I bought the De Capo Press 2002 edition, but it is a lesser thing. It is a facsimile of the original, with no photos. The maps were reduced in size — I would need a magnifying lens to read them, and the most important bits seem to be down in the crease. Therefore inaccessible.
The I don’t know what the extra two introductory essays add to it. We know the State of Israel has changed things entirely from 1945 onwards. The increase in population and prosperity has altered the landscape and people beyond recognition. Morton recorded it all for us, just in time.
Fortunately the title has yet to be discovered, or HVMorton is out of favour (the book is of its time, with attitudes of the time) so I was able to get an original edition fairly cheaply.
June 7, 2009
I was given this book years ago, and for some unexplainable reason, haven't read it until now. What a shame! It is a truly lovely, inspiring book. H.V. Morton takes us with him as he travels to the Holy Land in the 1930's, retracing Jesus' steps. The book is a travellogue, but it isn't written as a tourist, but rather as a believer on a pilgrimmage. There isn't a single picture, yet the locales he describes jump so vividly from the page, and create such a distinct mental image, that I actually said to my husband "Wow! That's not what I thought that looked like at all!" Morton also provides a wealth of historical information to flesh out each scene. I highly recommend this book, and am shaking my head as to why it took me so long to read it!!
June 8, 2013
I did enjoy this one. The sections I enjoyed, I almost loved. However, there were plenty of sections that I didn't fully enjoy. Overall, I liked the way he captured Palestine in the early 1930s. I enjoyed reading his rambles about his daily journeys, his sharing of small details both present-day (1930s) and historical (all time periods). I appreciated the subject as well: Morton's interest in the New Testament, in the gospels, in the life of Christ.
February 18, 2017
This book was given to me by a pen-pal friend who was living overseas as a DOD teacher. This book chronicles the author's tour through the holy lands of Palestine, Syria, and Lebanon in the early 1930s before Israel became a state. The author's writings, photographs, lucid descriptions, and biblical parallels of the areas and towns where Jesus walked and lived are fascinating and compelling. I couldn't put this book down. Thank you, Annie, for the wonderful gift!
March 6, 2010
Love this guy's travel books written from the 30's to the 60's. In the Steps of the Master was written in 1934 about a trip taken to the Holy Land to follow the travels of Christ during his life. Wonderful descriptions of the cities, ruins, small Arab towns, the overlay of Greek, Roman, Assyrian, Jewish, Christian communities that made the Holy Land before Israel was Israel.
June 12, 2012
I didn't enjoy this as much as 'In the Steps of St Paul'. I found the chronology both of his own travels and as related to the life of Christ rather muddled, though the sense of place is wonderful. Also, I was a little uneasy with his generalisations about the character of the races he encountered. I'm going to read his UK travel writing next.
July 11, 2014
Wonderfully entertaining and enlightening account of the Middle East, essentially Palestine, between the two World Wars.
Of great note are his accounts, written in 1933, of the Palestinians' obvious dislike (if not hatred) of him at times because they thought he was a Jew. He was wearing a hat with a brim.
Of great note are his accounts, written in 1933, of the Palestinians' obvious dislike (if not hatred) of him at times because they thought he was a Jew. He was wearing a hat with a brim.
October 31, 2018
An absolutely winning travel-journal on the Holy Land of the mid-twentieth, inter-war period, told in a captivating narrative form and with much historical, geographical and cultural detail. Highly recommended, although now quite out-of-date.
January 17, 2015
Brilliant; loved reading this.
December 17, 2023
A great trip through Israel and the life of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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