It is ultimately the book’s humanity and compassion – as well as disbelief at Butler-Gallie’s not being able to find a place in the contemporary Anglican church – that lingers after you finish reading, rather than its farce. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has now published a list of disinfectants and active ingredients that can be used against the Sars-CoV-2 virus. I had been looking forward to this and have enjoyed his other writing and whilst as a clergyman I enjoyed some of the vignettes, the book didn't come together as I might've expected, and I found some of his gripes and agendas along the way tiresome by the end.

Behind the daily scrapes is an all-too-human love letter to the Church of England, and the amazing variety of people who manage to keep it going, providing a listening ear, company and community at a time when so many people desperately need it, as well as a reflection on what it means to follow a spiritual path amid the chaos of the modern world.

An interesting read with some deep insight and some hilarious episodes, but unfortunately interspersed with a lot more material that is informative but not as interesting or as funny as the author thinks. Rather than seeking to justify the ways of God to man, Butler-Gallie places himself in the new vein of workplace memoirs based on the traditional professions. Alexander Larman * Observer * I may be a non-believer, but I laughed my way through this warm and witty book, which made me admire the irreverent reverend Fergus Butler-Gaillie even more than I already did. i newspaper * Butler-Gallie loves the Church of England, even with its foibles, loves being a priest, and especially loves the ordinary people there.

Like all idiomatic phrases, there are several other ways to say “touching cloth” that still convey the same meaning. Yet, as he subsequently reveals in this diary-cum-memoir , his true answer, shruggingly expressed, was: “Death, I suppose. As an award-winning science site, BBC Future is committed to bringing you evidence-based analysis and myth-busting stories around the new coronavirus.

He does give a good description of the typical life of a low-ranking halfway-up-the-candle clergyman, but no real insight or explanation. Definitions and other text are available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. Ultraviolet light can also be used to disinfect some surfaces, but is not currently recommended for use on human skin. The memoir of Fergus Butler-Gallie's first year as a Church of England priest, 'Touching Cloth' is filled with humourous stories drawn from Butler-Gallie's pastoral experience pair with tender, poignant observations about what it means to practice faith and inhabit the Church in today's world. Whatever his failure to progress up the hierarchy of the Church, he has an established place as one of its most acute and amusing chroniclers.