Stereotypes and lost confidence

ARCHBISHOP
A novel
By Michele Guinness
Hodder & Stoughton, 543 pages. £16.99
ISBN 978 1 444 753 363

Michele Guinness has ventured into the territory of fiction writing with her latest book, Archbishop.

The writing may not suit those with a literary bent, but it does immerse the reader into the world of the non-conservative Anglican ‘evangelical’ and for this reason may be worth reading. It is written by an insider who knows about the machinations of the Church of England and examines them from parish to synod. A realist fantasy, it charts the rise of Vicky Burnham-Woods from theology student to Archbishop of Canterbury in 2020. Her story is played out through a series of flashbacks that, as a literary device, has mixed success.