Are you there Marcus? It’s me, Simon. I’m pretty sure you exist, because I’ve been to see you recording The Now Show, so there might be a little less existential angst in this review than in your book, but I just wanted to say (assuming that you do in fact exist) how much I enjoyed it. I am sure many people will be able to relate to your central dilemma, that of being profoundly unreligious, indeed even anti-religion, and quite possibly atheist too, in the sense of not believing in the big guy with the beard and the love of smiting, yet of having a spiritual gap in their lives that they are looking for something to fill.

You went on the road with your God Collar show to talk to audiences about this, and now you’ve written a book about your thoughts and experiences – including profoundly influential experiences, such as the death of your best friend James when he was only in his thirties. You are remarkably frank about your whole life really – weight problems, expulsions from school, and so on – and you don’t pull any punches when it comes to knowing your own faults, either, all of which is actually rather endearing.

Your critique of the rational atheism of Richard Dawkins is just as damning as that of Abrahamic religions – it might make sense, but atheism actually makes you feel worse. You want the reassurance that comes from faith, but you can’t switch your intellect off for long enough to ever really get in to it. Of course, you’re well known for your anti-religious rants (such as this particular diatribe from the Now Show), and there’s plenty of your trademark vitriol and cutting humour in here too – but this is what makes the emotional aspects of this book all the more surprising.

I don’t think it’s spoiling this book to say that you don’t find an answer to your dilemma, but I find it comforting that you tried, and that you involved so many people in the process. You’re a talented performer and an entertaining writer (your descriptions of your experiences as a father manage to be affecting and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time), and it occurs to me that maybe you might like to found your own sort-of-church, for other like-to-believers and their fellow travellers. Instead of a Sunday Sermon we could have a Tuesday Tirade, and instead of wafers and wine, how about some of your beloved Stilton cheese? No? Oh, well, it was just a thought…

All the best,

Simon

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