A Field Guide to the English Clergy: A Compendium of Diverse Eccentrics, Pirates, Prelates and Adventurers; All Anglican, Some E

Description

Judge not, lest ye be judged. This timeless wisdom has guided the Anglican Church for hundreds of years, and has fostered a certain tolerance of eccentricity among its members. The Reverend Robert Hawker invented the Harvest Festival, but he also excommunicated a cat for mousing on Sundays. Bishop Lancelot Fleming would commandeer Navy helicopters when he was late for service. The Reverend John Allington - 'Mad Jack', to his friends - wore a leopard skin instead of a surplice, and insisted on being carried around in a coffin. A Field Guide to the English Clergy celebrates the cream of the crop: the drinkers (and publicans), the inventors, the lion tamers, the suicidal missionaries, and even one piratical Archbishop. But despite their sometimes bizarre behaviour, many in the clergy saw the church as their true calling. After all, who cares if you're wearing red high heels when there are souls to be saved?

The Reverend Fergus Butler-Gallie holds a bachelor's degree in history from the University of Oxford and a bachelor's degree in theology from the University of Cambridge. He also once accidentally appeared on Only Connect. This is his first book.

'One of the best Christmas books of the past few years... both hilarious and unusually elegant in conception and execution.' * Marcus Berkmann, Spectator * 'Eye-popping tales of lunacy, debauchery and depravity...Butler-Gallie has done a splendid job presenting a smorgasbord of most peculiar parsons.' * Sebastian Shakespeare, Daily Mail * 'We have...always kept a special haven for oddballs in the Church of England, as Fergus Butler-Gallie demonstrates in this entertaining compendium...Their foibles cover all bases from absentmindedness to epic drunkenness...I'm glad I read this one. It's a lot of fun.' * The Times * 'Entertainingly erudite...But it is also a surprisingly profound work...For all its mischief, Butler-Gallie's work of lightly worn erudition is a paean to a great English institution, finely tuned to the temper of its representatives, good, bad and indifferent. We should treasure it more.' * Literary Review * 'A humorous compendium of some of the oddball clergy who have served the Church over the centuries...These thumbnail portraits reveal a very broad church indeed.' * New Statesman * 'The Church of England has produced some real oddballs in its time, and this is an entertaining gallop through several centuries' worth of them...Butler-Gallie has done his homework, digging out some rare gems...This is the story not just of eccentrics, but also of a leisured age that is no more.' * Harry Mount, Spectator * 'Wonderfully entertaining...A hilarious yet thoughtful reminder that the Christian faith wasn't always thought incompatible with a sense of humour or a healthy bolshiness.' * Sunday Times * 'It may have the makings of a modern classic...Butler-Gallie chronicles not just Anglican follies, but also human weaknesses which we all share and with which we can perhaps sympathise.' * The Catholic Herald * 'This is a ridiculously enjoyable book: funny, compassionate, and wonderfully well-written.' -- Tom Holland 'A delightful, sympathetic, humorous and earthed cocktail of quirky English clergy.' -- The Rt Revd David Wilbourne 'Fabulously enjoyable compendium of the Anglican Church's most eccentric ministers - who prove to be very eccentric indeed.' -- Reader's Digest 'Some of the most riotous misbehaviour in Church of England history is chronicled in this sprightly book.' * Daily Mail *