God's architect: a biography of Antoni Gaudí

Antoni Gaudí's architecture is among the world's most instantly recognisable sights. His still unfinished basilica, La Sagrada Família welcomes five million visitors annually. Yet in this the centenary year of his death, knocked down in the street by a tram, mistaken for a tramp and spending his last hours in a paupers' hospital, much about this unworldly genius remains a mystery, not least the source of inspiration to create extraordinary buildings that stand in a place of honour of their own in the canon of architecture. His explanation - that the fount of his imagination was God - sits uncomfortably alongside his modern-day fame in a secular world that nonetheless celebrates him. In reconnecting Gaudí's peerless architecture with the highs and lows of his faith, Peter Stanford walks in his footsteps through Barcelona, retracing his life through the buildings, parks and landscapes he admired and those that he created.