A Field Guide to the English Clergy
by the Revd Fergus Butler-Gallie, Oneworld, 192pp, £12.99
If one were to run a competition to find the funniest book in the English language, my guess is that Sellar and Yeatman’s 1066 and All That would win by a mile. Because it is such a good book, and more importantly a publishing sensation, never out of print since 1930, it has spawned a great many imitations, few of which have approached its level of success.
This volume under review, subtitled A Compendium of Diverse Eccentrics, Pirates, Prelates and Adventurers; All Anglican, Some Even Practising, is clearly in the Sellar and Yeatman tradition of parody and arch humour. It consists of several dozen thumbnail sketches of Anglican clergy, all deceased. It may have the makings of a modern classic.
