Reviewed by Mike Rimmer

Mr Letts is a political commentator who writes a column for the Daily Mail so perhaps we shouldn't be surprised that he is prone to letting off huge clouds of right wing steam. In view of his political perspective we shouldn't be surprised at some of the targets in this book which include the person behind reality TV show Big Brother, Princess Diana (she made us more neurotic), Jimmy Saville (he introduced shell suits to the UK), John McEnroe (he spread bad sportsmanship) and, rather predictably, many of the key figures of New Labour. Although the columnist lays into his targets with occasional insights and a nice use in comic insults the book isn't as amusing as it thinks it is with the writer sometimes coming across as a ranting bully. So why is this book being reviewed by Cross Rhythms? Well, Letts is also a conservative when it comes to matters of religion, if not in a theological sense then in a traditional church going meaning of the word. You get the idea that the journalist's Christianity is surrounded by the faint smells of high church tradition with that tradition replacing a faith which is vibrant and living. For Letts, the Church seems to be as George Orwell described 'Old maids bicycling to Holy Communion through the morning mist'. So, the former Dean Of York Ronald Jasper gets attacked for daring to update The Book Of Common Prayer into a modern common language that the proles can understand because it loses the fancy pants poetic turns of phrase which Letts loves so much. Mr Letts religious bias doesn't stop there. Most extraordinarily of all the pioneer of contemporary worship music Graham Kendrick also gets an essay as a man who b*gg**ed up Britain. According to Letts' version of Church history Kendrick is the man mainly responsible for the dumbing down of Church practice as he inspired a happy clappy colonisation of the Church Of England. Never mind that without Kendrick and his ilk who have encouraged a massive youth movement, his beloved church would be dying out in its pews. Never mind that Kendrick never wrote the banal song about "fuzzy-wuzzy bears" that concerns Letts in the first part of his Kendrick essay or indeed that song was intended for very young children, Kendrick is roundly vilified as an inept and misguided songwriter. I suspect that Letts doesn't like his Sunday mornings disturbed by anything as plebeian as enthusiasm. God forbid!

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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