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Fathomless Riches
On sale
16th October 2014
Price: £25
A parish priest in Northamptonshire; a former rock-star whose number-one hit with The Communards was the biggest-selling single of 1986; the regular host of BBC Radio 4’s SATURDAY LIVE – these three people are not usually embodied in one person. The Reverend Richard Coles’ memoir offers his rich and personal insights into one of the most diverse of lives, encompassed with the wit and humour he brings to his popular radio show.
Richard Coles gives the phrase ‘time management’ a new emphasis. From conducting the funeral of a cross-dressing farmer and recording an interview with a Californian who believes he was abducted by aliens, to a lunch meeting with the Mothers Union, then making an after-dinner speech to a roomful of thoughtful actuaries, his work has taken him from food-fights in a Swiss hotel with the Beastie Boys to propitiating the gods of the sea as Deputy Chaplain to the Admiral of the Wash on his annual inspection of the Beacons and Buoys.
Mirroring the Christian calendar with its narrative of birth, death and renewal, from Advent to Christmas, from Lent to Easter, Richard Coles gives an honest and lighthearted account of the drama that comes with fulfilling so many roles, and the daily challenges that accompany it.
Fathomless Riches – a phrase characteristic of St Paul and his followers – is the indescribable generosity, love and sheer surprise that Richard Coles encounters through a life of faith. The result is one of the most readable and illuminating autobiographies of the year.
Read by the author
(p) 2014 Orion Publishing Group
Richard Coles gives the phrase ‘time management’ a new emphasis. From conducting the funeral of a cross-dressing farmer and recording an interview with a Californian who believes he was abducted by aliens, to a lunch meeting with the Mothers Union, then making an after-dinner speech to a roomful of thoughtful actuaries, his work has taken him from food-fights in a Swiss hotel with the Beastie Boys to propitiating the gods of the sea as Deputy Chaplain to the Admiral of the Wash on his annual inspection of the Beacons and Buoys.
Mirroring the Christian calendar with its narrative of birth, death and renewal, from Advent to Christmas, from Lent to Easter, Richard Coles gives an honest and lighthearted account of the drama that comes with fulfilling so many roles, and the daily challenges that accompany it.
Fathomless Riches – a phrase characteristic of St Paul and his followers – is the indescribable generosity, love and sheer surprise that Richard Coles encounters through a life of faith. The result is one of the most readable and illuminating autobiographies of the year.
Read by the author
(p) 2014 Orion Publishing Group
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Reviews
One of the most immensely readable - and redeemable - memoirs of the year. His book is an engaging account of eccentricity, curiosity and a profound spiritual journey. I give it a screamingly camp, happy-clappy thumbs up
Sex, drugs, death, religion, more sex, many more deaths - it has got it all. Like a sparkling old-style chasuble worn by a Spanish priest, it is difficult to ignore
He writes with charm and erudition and his take on 1980s Britain is fascinating
Beautifully written, disarmingly frank and utterly charming
Richard's devastating honesty makes his journey from gay pop-star to celibate parish priest comprehensible even to atheists
[O]ne of the most readable memoirs of 2014
Richard Coles has achieved a rare thing in writing an astonishingly honest autobiography, which, alongside the sex and drugs, presents Christian faith in a way that will surely be invitingly intriguing to an audience well beyond the church ... An immensely enjoyable memoir, whether a reader's primary interest is the music industry, the impact of AIDS, the Church of England, or a wonderfully Anglican combination of all three.
Full of wit and humour about finding god, and Jimmy Somerville.
It is a tale of redemption and of a sinner come to transformation... The Church of England is all the better for having such a priest within its ranks.
Witty, honest and - no pun intended - irreverent, it is very much a personal and at times hearbreaking account about what it was like ot be day during the period with a bit of pop-world gossip thrown in as well. Readable to say the least.