Don't Forget We're Here Forever

Lyrical, reflective . . . A rare and arresting book

New Statesman

Ash's first book, on the Cornish fishing community, written with wide-eyed wonder when she was in her early 20s, was excellent, and her second is even better . . . Ash has that great skill of writing narrative non-fiction in a nuanced way, subtly revealing the complexities of humanity

Daily Mail

In ancient abbeys and modern meeting houses, in silent retreats and garrulous reading groups, Ash meets born-again evangelicals and utopian Quakers and all sorts in between . . . Offers scintillating insight into how faith works in an age of intense self-fashioning

Financial Times

Meticulously crafted . . . Through her personal experiences and reflections Ash illuminates the inadequacy of mere statistical measures of religious attendance . . . The author pursues her quest through intelligent observation and exploratory conversation . . . These reflections on a “new generation’s search for religion” will be rewarding reading for many

Times Literary Supplement

Inspired by the abrupt embrace of religion by two friends, Lamorna Ash has investigated how many young people are now turning towards faith, not away from it. Don’t Forget We’re Here Forever takes in every facet of this, from youth festivals put on by evangelicals to monasteries on Scottish islands. Along the way, she touches on her own relationship to religion too

GQ, Best Books of 2025

An important and human book about the state of Christianity in contemporary Britain

Scotsman

It is not surprising that at a time like this, people should turn to older sources of meaning. Don’t Forget We’re Here Forever is therefore a book for our moment . . . Subtle, self-conscious and beautifully wrought . . . A literary performance of a high order; it is also a deeply humane book

Irish Times

I finished Don’t Forget We’re Here Forever in 48 hours, because the stakes are so real and so recognisable . . . What lingers is the vulnerable expression of raw existential longing and the sheer beauty of the sentences . . . The most honest and moving account of the wrestle of faith that I have read since Christian Wiman’s My Bright Abyss, and I have never heard anyone describe the interior experience of prayer more powerfully

Church Times

Gentle, lovely . . . Ash’s faith is at its core a matter of curiosity . . . Ash started working on Don’t Forget We’re Here Forever when she was only 26, but the tender grace of her tone makes her seem much older, perhaps because she writes from the vantage point of newly discovered faith. In addition to a journalistic portrait of many young believers, Don’t Forget We’re Here Forever is a memoir of sorts, charting Ash’s passage from doubt to a refreshingly fluid and undogmatic brand of Christianity . . . Even when she is exploring the cruellest and crudest forms of Christianity, Ash often finds something of value in them . . . Over the course of Don’t Forget We’re Here Forever, Ash becomes an example of the kind of radical openness that reading (and religion) should demand

Washington Post

A lyrical and remarkably compassionate picture of faith

Prospect

A book of rare quality: Lamorna Ash is not only a writer of exceptional grace and energy, but a movingly good, compassionate listener

ROWAN WILLIAMS, former Archbishop of Canterbury

Beautiful as a piece of writing, beautiful too as a record of a soul wrestling in the present with what faith might be

FRANCIS SPUFFORD

Spellbinding . . . An incredible exploration of how young people are navigating the complex world we find ourselves in today

KATY HESSEL, author of The History of Art Without Men

Humane, curious and unexpectedly moving, Lamorna Ash’s book is as much an account of the human condition as it is an investigation of faith. Quietly radical in its empathy, this is a book I have waited years and years to read, without even knowing it

SEÁN HEWITT, author of All Down Darkness Wide

Smart and stylish and occasionally transformative . . . Ash’s mission to find out what the religion signifies and her good faith engagement with believers will surely stay with her, and her readers, for some time

Tablet

Written with great candour and self-awareness . . . Ash’s book is itself a comfort: an opportunity to see the Church through the eyes of someone newly awakened to its potential

Church Times

In this elegantly written work of non-fiction, she travels around Britain to see how our young people turned back to religion, exploring everything from Quaker meetings to monastic communities on the Hebridean Isles. We read a lot of waffle about "the youth today", and what they do (or don’t) believe: Ash paints a fascinating, and more realistic, picture

Telegraph, The Best Books of 2025

Lamorna Ash wonders why – and how – so many young people are converting to Christianity in Britain today. It’s no spoiler to say that Ash’s search for answers leads to some self-questioning too, but, crucially, she remains clear-eyed about her subject throughout. This is religion in the 21st century

Prospect, Books of the Year

Explores faith with honesty, depth and a storyteller's eye . . . Candid and unflitered . . . Near-essential reading for anyone hoping to understand how Gen Z might approach faith

Premier Christianity

Radically empathetic, this is a reminder of the joy of collectivism and feeding the soul

Elle, The Cult Books We Can't Wait to Read in 2025

Inspired by the abrupt embrace of religion by two friends, Lamorna Ash has investigated how many young people are now turning towards faith, not away from it. Don’t Forget We’re Here Forever takes in every facet of this, from youth festivals put on by evangelicals to monasteries on Scottish islands. Along the way, she touches on her own relationship to religion too

GQ, The Most Anticipated Books of 2025

Serious, luminous and profound, Lamorna Ash has written a book that’s honest without self-pity, moving without becoming sentimental, clear-sighted, considered and animated by an intuitive intelligence. She’s a wonderful companion and this is an important book for an age that so often feels atomised

LUCY CALDWELL, author of Openings

She has that great skill of writing narrative non-fiction in a nuanced way, subtly revealing the complexities of humanity

Britain’s youngsters are turning to faith in surprising numbers. Ash embarks on a journey around Britain, from Evangelical youth festivals to Quaker meetings to a silent Jesuit retreat to find out why

Financial Times, What to Read in 2025

A very persuasive and compelling account of the cultural shift happening right now in Britain and elsewhere with respect to religion, especially Christianity. As the book tells its story, there is also a shift from an open-minded curiosity about religion to a much more intense focus on religious practices like prayer and devotion, particularly in the context of compassion for the suffering of others, near and far. An excellent book

SIMON CRITCHLEY, author of On Mysticism

Don’t Forget We’re Here Forever introduced me to a Christianity far richer and stranger than the faith I thought I knew. Lamorna Ash is the best of guides through our new spiritual landscape: clear-eyed, compassionate and truly wise. And, from the first page to the last, she writes like an angel

MATT ROWLAND HILL, author of Original Sins

Provides a very human portrait of young people wrestling with the idea of religion

Elle

Ash’s slow courtship with faith is moving, both because it’s colored by her impending loss and because of how she embraces the uncanny

New Yorker