Austin Lee is described in the brief author bio as a "maverick clergyman" and that desciption alone made me want to read further. The notion of a maverick clegyman has the ring of "wild dog of wholesale book retailing" about it, in that it may not conjure up any tropes of an all action outsider hell bent on shaping the world rather than being shaped by it, but in real world terms it is intriguing. He sounded like a colourful character, actually at odds with the church he was part off, The Church of England. He even speculated about the make up of your average Church of England congregation as "contains a galaxy of the meanest, most malicious, back biting, narrow minded and bigotted members of the community", a speculation that could have been regarded in the wider social media of this century as "Doing a Ratner.! The bio also mentions that he died in 1956, a batchelor, not having married, which does sound like a mannered code of some kind, that which cannot be spoken off in front of the vicar, or the priest, or the Rabbi, or whatever. He sounds like a rather decent human being, a man of principle, who was not afraid of standing up for that which he believed in, something sadly missing in many modern religious figures, regardless of whether you agree with them or no...He once made this observation about the average congregation attending a mass as"..contains a galaxy of the meanest, most malicious, back biting, narrow minded and bigoted members of the community", marvellous, sounds like the cast of Midsummer Murders. mind you, that mildly self destructive observation could perhaps be described, by those of a certain generation, as "Doing a Ratner.". Look it up, really.
His funeral service was held in the chapel of Trinity College, Cambridge.
No code intended.
Really enjoyed this book. And there is so much more to recommend it than it just having been written by an interesting author. There are some mysterious murders in beautiful and historic locations, a retired school mistress turned private detective, some very pleasant and not too knowing literary allusions, The Brontes, Wordsworth, as well as the environs of oxford and Cambridge (fans of Morse, Lewis and even Doctor Who take note; SHADA!). Style and tone-wise I was reminded of the recent Edmund Crispin novel I read; The Moving Toyshop. Its just as much fun too. And I don't mean that in a "Bourgeois have a giggle at a brutal murder way". Its just pleasantly engaging with quite likeable characters who are easy to imagine.
You might subtitle it; To Live and Die In Bronte...
BOOM!BOOM! As dear Basil Brush used to say.
( P.S. Not many people may be aware that Basil was also a very successful recording artist. Here is a copy of his album cover sleeve. I went looking for it in my vinyl record collection and found it sitting between a copy of David Bowie's LOW and Lou Reed's TRANSFORMER. which is off course where it belongs.)
