Realms of Glory: (Lindchester Chronicles 3)

Lindchester #3

by Catherine Fox

How will it all end? Come, dear reader, and join with the good and the bad of the Diocese of Lindchester as they navigate their way through the storms of 2016. What does the year hold in this best of times, this worst of times; this season of bake-offs and food banks, of muscular theological hope and hand-wringing theological despair? We will peep through many a stained-glass window in pursuit of answers.



Will the new bishop - dubbed Steve-angelical by his detractors - impose the evils of management on the timeless beauty of Anglicanism? Will kind Dean Marion collude with him? Will Archdeacon Matt be the next bishop of Barcup - and what will Jane think of that? And will Freddie - more lovely than a summer's day, though far less temperate - finally find love and happiness?Times are dark in this, the final volume of the Lindchester Chronicles, but we may yet glimpse a touch of radiance around the grubby edges of our characters. So let us soar as best we can on Anglican wings, towards those unseen Realms of Glory.'Catherine Fox's glorious Lindchester series is the twenty-first-century answer to Trollope's Barchester - but Trollope was never so funny, so fundamentally kind, or so mischievously attentive to grace.'Francis Spufford, author of Golden Hill

Genres: Fiction

386 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 20, 2017

About the author

Catherine Fox was educated at Durham and London Universities and has a degree in English and a PhD in Theology. She is the author of Angels and Men, The Benefits of Passion and Love for the Lost, which explore the themes of the spiritual and the physical with insight and humour. In 2007, Yellow Jersey Press published Fight the Good Fight: From Vicar's Wife to Killing Machine in which Catherine relates her quest to achieve a black belt in Judo. More recently she published a YA fantasy novel, Wolf Tide, before starting work on her three volume Lindchester Chronicles. She teaches at Manchester Metropolitan University and lives in Sheffield. She is currently blogging a new novel in weekly instalments. It starts here: https://lindfordtales.blogspot.com/20...

Reviews

[Colin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This third volume in Catherine Fox’s compulsively readable Lindchester Chronicles (a distinctly twenty-first century take on Trollope’s Barchester Chronicles with similarly eventful stories of ecclesiastical life) feels like the conclusion of a trilogy, although there seem to be two further books in the sequence to come. I’m guessing that the popularity of the books and readers’ desire to know more about characters in which they had become so invested meant there was irresistible pressure to continue the series. I will read on and find out. I love these books for many reasons: the complex, rounded, fallible characters, Fox’s all-seeing eye approach to narrative, the social comedy, the sense of the everyday give and take that oils the wheels of human communities, but most of all for the author’s unlimited love and generosity of spirit for all the people who move through her books.

[Rod MacLeod · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely wonderful! The whole trilogy is simply a delight. I just wanted these books to go on and on. There aren’t too many books that you want to stay immersed in but here are three, I just loved them. Thank you!

[Bridget Simpson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bereft at having finished the series I’ve had to order everything else she’s written 💗

[Rona · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh my goodness, I am so disappointed to have finished this book! I read more and more slowly as I got towards the end as these characters have become part of my life. What a fabulous trilogy. The writing is rich with allusions and references to all things C of E and religious. And the author doesn’t take our ridiculousness seriously- not one jot. She gently mocks and teases and holds up a mirror to our utter silliness in the church whilst never belittling our faith and the profound, life changing gift of being a Christian, and knowing yourself loved by God - who (I’m fairly certain) is delighted that someone can write such a gentle fictional tease while reminding us of a love which will never let us go.
If that sounds gushy and over the top - well meh, because I flipping love the Lindchester Chronicles!

[Helen Cannam · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have loved Catherine Fox's Lindchester books and eagerly awaited each new book in the series.
This final volume follows the characters we've come to know so well through the traumas of 2016 to a satisfactory and deeply moving conclusion, where most of the loose ends are tied up and somehow (in spite of everything) all is well.
But I still feel bereft that there will be no more Lindchester books to look forward to!

[Diana Coleman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve read all three of the Lindchester Chronicles and enjoyed every one. Will there be more? I hope so. I like the characters, they all have interesting quirks. The story being told by a narrator with whom we fly around the Diocese and drop in an out of events is an intriguing approach which adds to the humour and suspense. The issues they face are current and familiar to us, the characters grappling with them as we do. I’d definitely like to hear more about this marvellous fictional cathedral and the people who work there and in the surrounding parishes.

[Jeanne Symonds · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not quite what I expected, more bitter-sweet than the rip roaring laugh I was looking for. It is set against a contemporary account of the events of 2016, a drear year. It is still excellent though, handled with eloquent wit and affection. All the loved characters are beautifully sorted out sensitively and satisfactorily. I hope Catherine Fox is writing an account of this year 2019, what will she make of it?!

[Gael Browne · Rating 5 out of 5]

The review on the front cover summarises better than all the words I long to write: “Mischievously attentive to grace.” I have laughed. I have cried. I have rejoiced. I have mourned. The Church of England is so very flawed, made up of us broken people as it is. But God’s mercy and grace weaves something distinctive and beautiful amongst His people despite us faffing around and messing up. I’m humbled by the way this series has challenged me.

[Trish · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though I know little about Church of England hierarchy and politics, I enjoy this series of books. They are written in a refreshingly direct way, sometimes shockingly so, making me laugh out loud as few books do.

[Claire · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this foray back into the 'fictional' world which reflects so accurately the one I sometimes live in. I loved the narrators tone, the development of characters old and new, and the structure of the calendar year. Most of all though, I loved that it made me laugh out loud, and cry.

[Robin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was sad to see this trilogy end, but Fox did well tying up as much as she could with her broad cast of unruly characters. This book travels from January to December of 2016, and events from the U.K. and the world are constantly intruding on the small world of Lindchester Cathedral and environs. So in many ways it is a sad book because many sad and terrible things happened in 2016. But the characters face it all--some with tears, some with faith and prayers, and others with even a glimmer of hope from the realms of glory. Death is closer in this novel than in the previous two, and glimpses of the realms of glory are more frequent. Hymn, scripture, and liturgical references abound. These books have helped me understand the cathedrals I love to visit and they give a fair reflection on faith as it lives yet today in greater and lesser amounts in most of us. Fox has a gift for writing of religious and faith concerns without being preachy and often with a good deal of humor. I shall miss Lindchester but since I had to buy the books here in the U.S. as I could not find them in libraries, I can visit again whenever I want. Hooray for that!

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Originally developed as an ongoing blog, this account of the year 2016 - when all we had to worry about was Trump and Brexit - was intended to be the last in the Lindchester trilogy. It has all the emotional heft of the earlier works - we laugh and cry on the same page often - with perhaps a little less CofE satire and more socio-political hand-wringing. Excellent characters, and a wonderful portrait of England in the 21st century. How good to know that the author has since re-visited the diocese in time of plague, and is currently blogging volume five.
Those who follow the Lindchester choir -and Freddie - might be interested in this playlist

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0Li...

[Karin Jenkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

An amusing and sometimes thought provoking take on 2016, from the perspective of a Cathedral Close the fact that it was written "live" during the year gave it an extra frisson of the author genuinely not knowing what was going to happen next. It took me a while to get into as there are quite a lot of characters and the author expected us to remember all about them from the previous books.

[Laurena Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

This series of books has got better and better, with the characters and plot lines being developed. Funny, sad, heart wrenching, thought provoking, 'Realms of Glory' was one of those books which you wanted to gallop through to find out what happens, but which you also want to savour. I'll just have to read it again!

[Rachel of Winterley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'd give this 10 stars if I could. What a wise, humane, compassionate and hilariously witty woman Catherine Fox is! Such a wonderfully moving evocation of that eventful year of 2016, which is the backdrop to this instalment in the Lindchester series. I laughed, I wept.

[Judy Ford · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was sorry to hear that there will not be any more Lindchester Chronicles after this one.

[Rachel Broughton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brilliant. Fox treats the human condition (and the Anglican tradition) With a real tenderness. I will actually miss the believable and quirky characters she's created.

[Damaskcat · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the third and final book in Catherine Fox's marvellous Lindchester series. It is the darkest of the three but there are still plenty of amusing bits and marvellous one liners and descriptions. I have just re-read the first two books - Acts and Omissions and Unseen Things Above - to refresh my memory about the characters and I really enjoyed reading all three books back to back.

How is the new Bishop getting on? Will Matt become the next Bishop of Barcup and how will Jane feel being Mrs Bishop if that happens? Can Freddy May really settle down and be happy at last? How are Father Ed and the wayward Neil and what about 'Father' Wendy and the three legged greyhound -Pedro? I really feel as though I know these people having just spent three books with them. I also feel rather differently about the Church of England but not in a bad way. There are plenty of good things about the Church revealed in the books.

Is there too much about politics and terrorism? Maybe but also the various catastrophes of 2016 provide a solid background for the lives of the characters in this book. Here are people with all their human fallibilities struggling with the big events of life including love, death and birth. Sometimes they fail disastrously but more often than not they turn out to be pure gold and the reader's faith in the essential good in human nature is restored - or at least this reader's faith was restored.

I cried tears of laughter and tears of sadness over this book just as I did over the first two. They are definitely among my favourite books and will be re-read frequently.