Touching Cloth Confessions and communions of a young priest

The very word 'reverend' inspires solemnity. To be a priest is to dedicate one's life to quiet prayer and spiritual contemplation. Isn't it? Fergus Butler-Gallie reveals what it's like to become a priest in the twenty-first century. Find out why black really is slimming, how to keep a straight face when someone is inadvertently hot-boxing a funeral, and which royal-themed biscuit tin can best contain a very loud personal alarm that no one knows how to switch off. Spot a sweet old lady trying to pay for a taxi with coinage from fascist Spain? Congratulations, shepherd, she's your problem now. Behind the daily scrapes is an all-too-human love letter to the Church of England, and the amazing variety of people who manage to keep it going, providing a listening ear, company and community at a time when so many people desperately need it, as well as a reflection on what it means to follow a spiritual path amid the chaos of the modern world.

The Reverend Fergus Butler-Gallie is a writer and priest who has ministered in parishes in Liverpool and Central London. He grew up amidst a large family of maniacs, was then educated at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, and has spent time living and working in the Czech Republic and South Africa. He is the author of the bestselling Times and Mail on Sunday Book of the Year A Field Guide to the English Clergy and the Spectator Book of the Year Priests de la Resistance! He speaks regularly on radio, has written numerous articles for The Times, Independent, Guardian, Church Times, The Critic and The Fence, and won the 2022 P. G. Wodehouse Essay Prize.