Merrily on High.

I was browsing in Cornerstone yesterday when I discovered to my delight that the Canterbury Press have brought out a paperback version of Fr Colin Stephenson's "Merrily on High". The sub-title "An Anglo-Catholic memoir" describes it exactly. He was Vicar of St Mary Mag's Oxford and ran the Shrine at Walsingham after Fr Hope Patten dropped down dead at Benediction. MoH evokes the craziness of the high watermark of Anglo-Catholicism in the UK from the 1920's through to the 1960's, but in an amusing way. Much of the eccentricity, pottiness, pretension and real spirituality of the movement is captured in it. I read it years ago and looking into it again, am surprised by how different thing were for the spikes in days of yore. Still, it's got some good giggles in it. Never thought of a cotta as "tropical rig" as opposed to a surplice before!