'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.'
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Reader's Digest