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The Speaker's Wife: B Format
The Rev Tom Ross's quiet and semi-alcoholic life as chaplain to the Speaker of the House of Commons is about to be shattered.
Pastor Petroc Stone of a central London, evangelical church gives sanctuary to a young man being chased by the police for making an anti-Islamic protest. Politicians rage about the Church of England giving a safe haven to a dangerous criminal and Islamists surround the church building, furious at the boy's insult.
Meanwhile, the charismatic, white-maned Don of Doubt, Augustus Dymock, and his secular campaign, the Thought Foundation, are pressuring the Church to sell hundreds of its under-used places of worship.
As the stories twist and flow together, Ross finds himself caught up in a world of bribes, violence and political spin and, at high personal cost, he must confront his demons. The Speaker's Wife mixes Westminster intrigue with searching depictions of an England which has neglected its beliefs. Laugh-aloud satire is mixed with moving passages about the human condition and even a fairytale love story.
Pastor Petroc Stone of a central London, evangelical church gives sanctuary to a young man being chased by the police for making an anti-Islamic protest. Politicians rage about the Church of England giving a safe haven to a dangerous criminal and Islamists surround the church building, furious at the boy's insult.
Meanwhile, the charismatic, white-maned Don of Doubt, Augustus Dymock, and his secular campaign, the Thought Foundation, are pressuring the Church to sell hundreds of its under-used places of worship.
As the stories twist and flow together, Ross finds himself caught up in a world of bribes, violence and political spin and, at high personal cost, he must confront his demons. The Speaker's Wife mixes Westminster intrigue with searching depictions of an England which has neglected its beliefs. Laugh-aloud satire is mixed with moving passages about the human condition and even a fairytale love story.
304 pages, Paperback
Published October 6, 2016
13 people are currently reading
19 people want to read
About the author
Quentin Letts
14 books12 followersQuentin Letts is a British journalist and theatre critic, writing for The Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, The Oldie and New Statesman, and previously for The Times.
He was later educated at Haileybury and Imperial Service College, Bellarmine College, Kentucky (now Bellarmine University), Trinity College, Dublin where he edited a number of publications, including the satirical Piranha, and studied Medieval and Renaissance Literature (1982–86) at Jesus College, Cambridge, taking a Diploma in Classical Archaeology.
Letts has written for a number of British newspapers since beginning his journalistic career in 1987. His first post was with the Peterborough gossip column in the Daily Telegraph. For a time in the mid-1990s he was New York correspondent for The Times. He is the person behind the Daily Mail's Clement Crabbe column and is also the paper's theatre critic and political sketchwriter. He lists his hobbies in Who's Who as "gossip" and "character defenestration".
His columns have been described as "attempts at faintly homophobic humour" in The Guardian, which accused him of being "busy guarding what children should and shouldn't see in the theatre". He has also been accused of misogyny over an attack on Harriet Harman.
Letts presented an edition of the BBC current affairs programme Panorama broadcast on April 20, 2009. The programme dealt with the growing criticism of the influence of health and safety on various aspects of British life.
Letts has written three books, the bestselling 50 People Who Buggered Up Britain, Bog-Standard Britain, and Letts Rip! all with his UK publisher Constable & Robinson. In Bog Standard Britain he attacks what he sees as Britain's culture of mediocrity, where political correctness has, in his words "crushed the individualism from our nation of once indignant eccentrics". 50 People Who Buggered Up Britain has sold around 45,000 copies and was reviewed in The Spectator as "an angry book, beautifully written". In a published extract, he argued that 1970s feminist writer Germaine Greer may, by asserting female sexuality, have given rise to the modern phenomenon of "ladettes" and that this encouraged men to behave badly to women, thus doing the cause of equality a disservice.
He was later educated at Haileybury and Imperial Service College, Bellarmine College, Kentucky (now Bellarmine University), Trinity College, Dublin where he edited a number of publications, including the satirical Piranha, and studied Medieval and Renaissance Literature (1982–86) at Jesus College, Cambridge, taking a Diploma in Classical Archaeology.
Letts has written for a number of British newspapers since beginning his journalistic career in 1987. His first post was with the Peterborough gossip column in the Daily Telegraph. For a time in the mid-1990s he was New York correspondent for The Times. He is the person behind the Daily Mail's Clement Crabbe column and is also the paper's theatre critic and political sketchwriter. He lists his hobbies in Who's Who as "gossip" and "character defenestration".
His columns have been described as "attempts at faintly homophobic humour" in The Guardian, which accused him of being "busy guarding what children should and shouldn't see in the theatre". He has also been accused of misogyny over an attack on Harriet Harman.
Letts presented an edition of the BBC current affairs programme Panorama broadcast on April 20, 2009. The programme dealt with the growing criticism of the influence of health and safety on various aspects of British life.
Letts has written three books, the bestselling 50 People Who Buggered Up Britain, Bog-Standard Britain, and Letts Rip! all with his UK publisher Constable & Robinson. In Bog Standard Britain he attacks what he sees as Britain's culture of mediocrity, where political correctness has, in his words "crushed the individualism from our nation of once indignant eccentrics". 50 People Who Buggered Up Britain has sold around 45,000 copies and was reviewed in The Spectator as "an angry book, beautifully written". In a published extract, he argued that 1970s feminist writer Germaine Greer may, by asserting female sexuality, have given rise to the modern phenomenon of "ladettes" and that this encouraged men to behave badly to women, thus doing the cause of equality a disservice.
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November 25, 202125 Nov 2021 UPDATE TO MY REVIEW
Following Letts’ appalling comments on Good Morning Britain about the plight of refugees trying to get to safety in the U.K. , this book has gone into the shredder. Yesterday 27 people drowned trying to cross the channel in a dinghy. Mr Letts thinks they embarked to take advantage of our benefits system. He doesn’t appear to regard them as human beings. The book may have been ‘fun’, but Letts’ subscribes to a very peculiar brand of Christianity, and there’s no space for his thinking on my shelves. Yes, I’ve ‘cancelled’ him…my shelves, my rules.
MY PREVIOUS REVIEW
Much as it pains me to say that I enjoyed a book by Quentin Letts ... I enjoyed this....fun, bit of a romp. I picked it up in a charity shop, looking for a light read, and didn't twig the name of the author. If I had I wouldn’t have bought it as I’m not a fan. I was fazed by some of the odd references to Muslims, but, to be fair, Christians and non-Christians were given the same treatment.
Following Letts’ appalling comments on Good Morning Britain about the plight of refugees trying to get to safety in the U.K. , this book has gone into the shredder. Yesterday 27 people drowned trying to cross the channel in a dinghy. Mr Letts thinks they embarked to take advantage of our benefits system. He doesn’t appear to regard them as human beings. The book may have been ‘fun’, but Letts’ subscribes to a very peculiar brand of Christianity, and there’s no space for his thinking on my shelves. Yes, I’ve ‘cancelled’ him…my shelves, my rules.
MY PREVIOUS REVIEW
Much as it pains me to say that I enjoyed a book by Quentin Letts ... I enjoyed this....fun, bit of a romp. I picked it up in a charity shop, looking for a light read, and didn't twig the name of the author. If I had I wouldn’t have bought it as I’m not a fan. I was fazed by some of the odd references to Muslims, but, to be fair, Christians and non-Christians were given the same treatment.
March 11, 2022
This was a strange book. It kept me reading until the end which is why I gave it a third star. At times it was amusing and it made me laugh out loud once. It brought current English politics to life, and that maintained my interest.
The state of the Church of England I found rather disturbing and the intolerance towards religion quite hopeless. The plot was dull and unimaginative, with most of the imagination poured into the title.
I enjoyed the characters in the book and found myself able to visualise them easily. They reminded me of characters in an old fashioned television play. Some of the remarks in the text were rather misogynistic but whether Quentin Letts would attribute them to his characters or are his own views I wonder. I was not amused.
I will never read another book (or tweet) by Mr Letts and would not recommend this to any of my friends.
The state of the Church of England I found rather disturbing and the intolerance towards religion quite hopeless. The plot was dull and unimaginative, with most of the imagination poured into the title.
I enjoyed the characters in the book and found myself able to visualise them easily. They reminded me of characters in an old fashioned television play. Some of the remarks in the text were rather misogynistic but whether Quentin Letts would attribute them to his characters or are his own views I wonder. I was not amused.
I will never read another book (or tweet) by Mr Letts and would not recommend this to any of my friends.
January 31, 2020
This book was abysmally tedious. It’s as though it was trying to be a clever satire on modern society and the machinations of the government, but it just ends up being a self-absorbed and smarmy commentary on not very much at all. The story was irritating to follow and the title was, at best, tenuously connected to the actual plot. From what I’d read, I anticipated a story of a woman grappling with her husbands desperate attempts at partisanship in hostile parliament. Apparently all I got was this load of fuffing about. Dreary, dull, and not worth the read.
January 20, 2024
It was only when I got home with this book that I realised it was written by the same author as '50 People who have Buggered Up Britain' - A book that I found bordering on the offensive. This, I am glad to say, was a big improvement, although I did feel that at times the author was using it as a vehicle to vent his spleen - particularly around both atheism and Islam.
However, it is an enjoyable, if not particularly demanding novel. The saving grace for me was the very poignant passages right at the end, dealing with personal loss.
However, it is an enjoyable, if not particularly demanding novel. The saving grace for me was the very poignant passages right at the end, dealing with personal loss.
August 29, 2017
An interesting read???
To start the novel it seemed engrossing, but as it progressed the plot and characters became rather confusing. I'm glad I persevered and finished it,but this is not a book I'd recommend as a light read.
To start the novel it seemed engrossing, but as it progressed the plot and characters became rather confusing. I'm glad I persevered and finished it,but this is not a book I'd recommend as a light read.
December 20, 2019
A. novel by a journalist.
I was interested by a sample of something more journalistic he wrote
so tried this. Too shallow and smart Alec for me. Schoolboyish. Someone will like it.
I was interested by a sample of something more journalistic he wrote
so tried this. Too shallow and smart Alec for me. Schoolboyish. Someone will like it.
February 4, 2022
Really enjoyed the witty dialogue and found myself laughing out loud at some of the descriptions. Peculiar ending but it all made sense!
January 20, 2016
Letts comes across as a sort of Anglican Evelyn Waugh in this amusing and picaresque portrait of modern English politics, the House of Commons, trendy religious intolerance, trendy religious practice and the state of the Church of England. This novel is always witty and boasts a complicated if slightly predictable plot, filled with fascinating characters (sometimes verging on caricature), rather staged but often very funny set-piece scenes, some genuine surprises – all arising, I suspect, from his long years’ experience of political observation.
I enjoyed this very much, despite (or because of) its rather unfashionable standpoint, the importance and value of the traditions of the Church of England. Watch out for the twist at the end – the title is the clue.
I enjoyed this very much, despite (or because of) its rather unfashionable standpoint, the importance and value of the traditions of the Church of England. Watch out for the twist at the end – the title is the clue.
January 13, 2016
This is a very English political pot boiler which centres on a plot to convert unused churches into housing. The plot is pacy enough, although the reveal at the end was just bizarre. The problems lie in some of the characters the reader is expected to sympathise with and also in some of the author's notions - I don't think that deep down all atheists really believe in God as the characters in the novel seem to.
Ultimately, this was like reading a Jilly Cooper novel set in Westminster but without the jokes, sex or fun.
Ultimately, this was like reading a Jilly Cooper novel set in Westminster but without the jokes, sex or fun.
March 6, 2016
I'm not sure what I was expecting, but this was probably a little different. It is far more centred around the church and greed than politics. That's not necessarily a bad thing, though.
I did like the appearance of the real former Clerk of the House, Sir Robert Rogers appearing, disguised as Sir Roger Richards.
Although, I did feel the sad ending was rather unnecessary.
I did like the appearance of the real former Clerk of the House, Sir Robert Rogers appearing, disguised as Sir Roger Richards.
Although, I did feel the sad ending was rather unnecessary.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews