Three Vicars Talking

The book of the brilliant BBC Radio 4 series, Three Vicars Talking, in which the Reverends Richard Coles, Kate Bottley and Giles Fraser discuss birth, marriage, funerals, Christmas - and Easter in a time of coronavirus.

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When Christine Morgan got Richard Coles, Kate Bottley and Giles Fraser together in a studio, all she had to do was plug them in and let them go. The dynamic between the three meant there were moments of real connection and poignancy alongside the laughter: 'I'm exaggerating for comic effect,' Kate announced after one particularly outrageous anecdote, 'It's one of the reasons we're here.'

Each realized in the course of conversation that they favoured one of the three rites of passage:

Giles: Baptism because you enter into the body of Christ
Richard: Funerals because they take you into the mystery of God
Kate: Weddings because you get to wear nice shoes

Engagingly introduced by Christine Morgan, the book ends with the profoundly moving episode (recorded remotely in the three vicars' homes) that was broadcast on Easter Sunday 2020, to a world in crisis.