Recently Read

 Two of the books read in the last couple of weeks have been very readable and both very connected to the Church of England.

First - 

'Next to Nature; A Lifetime in the English Countryside' by Ronald Blythe. For many years Blythe wrote a column every week for The Church Times. These were later collected into books beginning with 'Word from Wormingford'. Next to Nature is the final collection prior to his death, aged 100, this month. Going through the year he writes about his home at Bottomgoms Farm in the village of Wormingford  on the Suffolk/Essex border, the natural world and farming, the village people and the church year. All of his writings show his incredible memory for things that had happened in his long life, his love of reading and learning and all the friends he knew.

His writing is very lyrical and descriptive. I've opened the book at random...........

The Village bakes. Sudden winds fan the heat about and creamy plates of elderflowers cense the hedges.

 The news is dreadfully unwise at the moment - very unexalting. But then, it was very unwise of me to stand on a wasps' nest and receive three stings. "Vinegar", David says. The stings fade into an itch. More wasps on the wrong side of my bedroom window. I let them out into the smoky darkness.

One of my childhood autumn sounds was to hear a big spider negotiating the ancient bedroom wallpaper where it had become loose on the uneven wall. September spiders now appear in the bath, and have to be carried to the garden by the glass and postcard method. In fact, the latter spider transport is an essential September fitting, by the soap. 

(I've just reserved The Bookman's Tale - one of my favourites of his books to re-read.)

The second was the first novel by Rev. Richard Coles  - Murder Before Evensong.  Rev. Coles is well known in this country for being the multi instrumentalist member of The Communards in the 80's, before becoming a C of E Vicar.  He presents a radio programme - Saturday Live and was once on Strictly Come Dancing and is often on TV panel shows and quizzes.

Canon Daniel Clement is Rector of Champton, living at the rectory with his widowed mother and two dachshunds. When he announces plans to remove pews to make room for a toilet in the church the parish is unexpectedly divided, and then there is a murder - the first of three. Is there a connection or is the reason for this brutal killing somewhere in the past? The Patron of Champton, living in the "Big House" Champton Hall is Bernard De Floures and the first person to be killed is Anthony Bowness, murdered in the church and found by Daniel. He was a cousin to Bernard and had been delving into the village and Hall history using papers from the library. Another village man is also interested in the history of the Hall especially the time it was used during the war by the Free French. He is the next to be murdered.

Daniel has the job of helping the police - because of his knowledge of his parishioners- and keeping the village together, while organising the funerals.

I enjoyed this and found it better written than books by that other TV personality turned author Richard Osman.

But I was puzzled by some of the reviewers on the back cover who thought it "funny". It is cleverly plotted but I certainly didn't find it funny.

Back Tomorrow

Sue