Tales of a Country Parish

Colin Heberpercy (Short Books, £12.99)

MUCH as none of us wish to revisit lockdown, good things did come out of it, thoughtfulness, kindness, creativity and a more relaxed attitude to materialism among them. Colin Heber-percy is the vicar of the bluebell-strewn Savernake Forest parish in Wiltshire. Distraught at the closing of churches on March 17, 2020, he began to write daily reflections, recognising they fulfilled a need for him as much as anyone else.

This book is a year’s worth, divided into seasons. In spring, he grapples with cauliflower stew in the kitchen as, upstairs, his wife lies in bed feverish with Covid. In summer, he delivers food parcels and stargazes; in autumn, he takes his son to university (‘He is the apple of my eye’—cue musings on Moses and Lewis Carroll), wonders about the point of wasps and tries to re-create an Italian lard risotto. In winter, when ‘the world begins to drip and slide and flow’, he sings In the Bleak Midwinter in a frosty churchyard.

There is much humour— I enjoyed Bertie the budgie bobbing up and down on a parishioner’s shoulder during a Zoom service—but this is not All Creatures Great and Small for vicars. The unsanctimonious Revd Heber-percy doesn’t try to preach, but the book contains a lot of theology, some of which I confess to skipping, and streams of consciousness: a mice infestation turns into an exploration of Kant, Nietzsche and theories on being and creation.

Fortunately, as a former scriptwriter, for both Casualty and the History Channel, his prose is flowing and he writes amusingly, perceptively and beautifully, especially about the countryside and human frailty.