I’m fortunate enough to count Al, his wife, Marie, and son, Jared, as friends. They also all three appear in this book, which is essentially Al’s memoir of his life, mainly as a pastor and minister. It’s been a privilege to know all three of them, both for their friendship but also for their disabusing me of some stereotypes that I had long held.

In London, as in the rest of Europe, there’s a sort of horrified fascination with America that pervades our media and public life. The BBC will send plane loads of journalists to cover US presidential elections while barely mentioning the presidential elections in France – which probably affect us even more than what happens in America. But amid all this coverage, one thing remains true: the barely disguised contempt with which America’s Bible Belt Christians are portrayed.

Now, I must confess to falling prey to this stereotype myself. But then, I met Al, and Marie, and Jared. Al is actually a Protestant pastor. While we haven’t specifically talked politics, I’m sure he’s socially conservative and probably politically Republican too. He even, I found out in his book, hunts! You’d be hard put to find someone who ticks more of the stereotype boxes.

Yet Al, and his family, are the very opposite of the ignorant, uncivilised, parochial stereotype of Protestant American Christians that we get served up all the time in Britain. They have more advanced degrees between them than most families have relatives and so far as parochial is concerned, they’ve travelled more than me – and I’ve been to a lot of countries. As a family, they love learning, in all its forms, and they also sponsor and help others wanting to learn.

They are, in fact, what a truly civilised family should be. Yet they are white American Christian hunters (for goodness sake, I learned that even Marie, one of the kindest ladies I’ve ever met, enjoys hunting!).

So while I thank them for their friendship, I also thank them for removing the blinkers of prejudice from my gaze.