The carillon, a tower instrument, and the largest musical instrument in the world, is for the first time brought to the general reading public. With England's Child, Jill Johnston has written a book of compelling subject matter, extraordinary writing, at once scholarly and personal. A portrait of the author's enterprising father, bellfounder Cyril Johnston, one of two Englishmen who introduced the carillon to North America in the early 20th century, puts a personal gloss on this tantalizingly unknown instrument. The author has intertwined her circumstances and motivations in writing the book, leading inevitably to her investigations of the bells that were cast for worldwide markets by her father.Anyone listening to classical music has probably heard his bells in the enduring Mercury recording of Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture where, as one critic put it, "The Bells of the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Carillon totally steal the show..."