Touching Cloth: Confessions and communions of a young priest

Description

Richard Coles meets Adam Kay in this decidedly irreverent occupational memoir. The very word 'reverend' inspires solemnity. To be a priest is to dedicate one's life to quiet prayer and spiritual contemplation. Isn't it? Fergus Butler-Gallie reveals what it's really like to become a priest in the twenty-first century. Find out why black really is slimming, how to keep a straight face when someone is inadvertently hot-boxing a funeral, and which royal-themed biscuit tin can best contain a very loud personal alarm that no one knows how to switch off. Spot a sweet old lady trying to pay for a taxi with coinage from fascist Spain? Congratulations, shepherd, she's your problem now. Behind the daily scrapes is an all-too-human love letter to the Church of England, and the amazing variety of people who manage to keep it going, providing a listening ear, company and community at a time when so many people desperately need it, as well as a reflection on what it means to follow a spiritual path amid the chaos of the modern world.

The Reverend Fergus Butler-Gallie is a writer and priest, and is currently Assistant Priest in the parish of Holy Trinity and St Saviour in Chelsea, London. He grew up amidst a large family of maniacs, was then educated at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, and has spent time living and working in the Czech Republic and South Africa. He has ministered in parishes in Liverpool and Central London. He is the author of the bestselling Times and Mail on Sunday Book of the Year A Field Guide to the English Clergy and the Spectator Book of the Year Priests de la Resistance (both published by Oneworld). He has appeared at the Port Eliot Festival, the Buxton Festival, the Oxford Blackwells Yulefest, and Jewish Book Week, speaks regularly on radio, and has written numerous humorous and serious essays, reviews, and articles for the likes of The Times, the Independent, the Guardian, Church Times, The Critic and The Fence.

I may be a non-believer, but I laughed my way through this warm and witty book, which made me admire the irreverent reverend Fergus Butler-Gaillie even more than I already did. It is so engagingly written, and could sit deservingly in the tradition of Monica Dickens's tales of muddling amusingly through in unusual jobs where one might not be considered "a natural" (very high praise!). It's funny, fascinating, and gorgeously humane. -- Marina Hyde, columnist and author of What Just Happened? Touching Cloth is a delight - a masterclass in the way pleasure, laughter and even God can be found in the most mundane moments of daily life. -- Edward Stourton, author of Confessions A warm-hearted and frequently hilarious insight into the daily life of the clergy that won over this inveterate atheist. -- Nick Pettigrew, author of Anti-Social Funny and touching in equal measure, the diary of a priest that ranges from slapstick to the hauntingly profound. -- Tom Holland, author of Dominion