LAST WORDS

Richard Holloway has been the archetypal turbulent priest Having risen to be the Primus Head of the Scottish Episcopal Church he abandoned religion and ecclesiastical office to fight for the rights of minorities and to write a string of best selling books most famously Leaving Alexandria He also became Chairman of the Scottish Arts Council In this his last book he reflects deeply on his life most especially as a child of desperately poor parents in Dumbartonshire in Scotland He tells the story of how he found faith but then abandoned Christian orthodoxy after leaving office as Head of the Scottish Episcopal Church and discovered a new life as a writer broadcaster journalist and public intellectual This book opens and ends with chapters of a philosophical kind in which he explains how he lost belief in a loving God and became true to himself