Out of a situation which many would give up on, John Pridmore writes a captivating, moving, funny and self-deprecating account of life as an inner-city priest in one of the most deprived parts of London. His jottings, he says, are a collection of the absurd, the poignant and the comic. They are emphatically not a record of 'good practice', he insists, but anyone countenancing working in a city parish will find more wisdom in this book than in all the theological volumes on the subject put together. For the last ten years John Pridmore has lived what he calls a roller-coaster life as vicar of...

Playing with Icons: The Spirituality of Recalled Childhood, is a study of memoirs of childhood in order to learn something about the spiritual lives of children. A basic premise of this study is that from our birth-and indeed from before our birth-we are spiritual beings, however elusive that idea proves to be. Most of the children we shall meet had some experience of formal religion. For some that experience is suffocating, threatening to stifle their spiritual growth, or simply inadequate, failing sufficiently to express all that most moves them. For others religion promotes their...