Writing a light, easy-to-read book is as difficult as baking a light, airy cake. Both must seem effortless in the consumption but require meticulous preparation and execution to produce the required sensation, akin to riding upon a souffle under a sparkling spring sky.

Fergus Butler-Gallie succeeds in producing the required impression with the parade of eccentrics, lunatics and holy fools that march across the pages. It’s a light read, in the best sense of the word, and limited to Church of England clergy, but that produces a cast broad enough for any such compendium.

Perhaps the saddest part of the decline of the Anglican Church in England is that there is no obvious home for men like this any more. While this might come as a relief for their parishioners, many (but certainly not all) of these priests were committed to the welfare of their parishioners – whether those parishioners wanted their ministrations or not.

Nowadays, no doubt, they would all be stuck with some sort of psychological label. As it is, they remain as a glorious parade of the eccentricity for which the English were once famous for – and hopefully will be again.