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In Every Corner Sing. The diary of a country vicar

Reviewed by Julian Reindorp.

This is a reprint of Tim Biles’ fascinating diary that came out in 1999 under the title ‘Churchwardens I have buried’.  It has already sold over 8,000 copies.  Tim was a parish priest in West Dorset for thirty years, and was also involved in his diocese’s support of the Church in Sudan.  When this book first came out his bishop, John Baker, described it as a ‘minor classic’ and so it has proved.

Any minister thinking about working in the countryside would be amused, charmed, and challenged by this down to earth description of what’s involved.  There is nothing heavy about his writing but he constantly reflects on the changing patterns in the country and in rural ministry:  the atmosphere of funerals changing from a dirge for the life lost to a celebration of the life lived, but the sense of awe before God and the pain of death and bereavement played down.

Tim observes the foibles of his parishioners with the same humour as he does his own.  He helped to develop a team ministry and he describes the process with its strengths and weaknesses.  He plays down his own remarkable ministry through it all.  I don’t know of a more vivid and discerning description of ministry in the countryside today.  As one of his parishioners wrote commending the book, ‘The humour is so delicious that I go to bed with Tim Biles every night and laugh myself to sleep’.