Fergus Butler-Gallie: Touching Cloth

I had picked up Fergus Butler-Gallie’s hugely enjoyable “Field guide to the English clergy” when it first came out in Hatchards bookshop, Piccadilly, London.

It was the perfect book for the Anglophile. One of the many charming aspects of English elite institutions is the continued presence of the Established Church. Most Oxbridge colleges boast a beautiful chapel, the overwhelming majority of which under Church of England management. Similarly for the Inns of Court and the Houses of Parliament. In a quiet, unobtrusive way, the COE still plays a role in Britain’s national life.

In “Touching Cloth”, Butler-Gallie recounts his own first year as a qualified priest in the COE. It was not all roses and butterflies: Butler-Gallie writes about abusive colleagues and a despairing job search that seemed to have no end. But humorous anecdotes abound and it was a very enjoyable read.