Eddi (or Stephanus) wrote a biography of Wilfrid, recounting the turbulent life of the controversial bishop and saint who worked for the Church and furthering his own career not only in the north of England but also for a time in Sussex. He also travelled on the Continent, visiting Rome on two occasions. In these excerpts we see him rebuilding churches at Ripon and York, on his travels, and at the centre of a conference at which Ælfflæd intervened, where a decision was taken as to Wilfrid’s future.

Donald Trump called ‘Make America Great Again’ his ‘whole theme’. He blazoned the slogan in signal white on his red baseball cap and even trademarked it. The use of building metaphors is the standard puff of presidential election campaigns. The reference to building bridges is especially potent, metaphorically, as a way of combining the virtues of building with the political ideal of connecting people. Hence Bill Clinton’s slogan for his successful 1996 presidential election campaign was ‘Building a Bridge to the 21st Century’. This chapter considers how politicians exploit the building metaphor and how the idea of building is integral to the laws by which states achieves a necessary balance between stability and change.