The hapless but good-hearted Adrian agrees, against his better judgement, to organise a church weekend away. He decides to keep a journal of events, in the style of his former 'Sacred Diary' books, so the format is familiar. So are most of the characters, albeit rather older. There are some quite poignant threads in this book as well as some humour: not the laugh-aloud hilarity of the first in the series, but I did chuckle a few times. I particularly liked the digressions taken by Leonard and Angels, following the directions of a SatNav....

Anne is as insightful as ever, and Gerald a little wiser and more mature; his wife Josey is a total delight, although it would have been good to have a chance to get to know her better. There are plenty of new characters - caricatures, of course, but mostly recognisable.

The time-frame is a little confusing: on the back, this book says that Adrian (the fictional one) is now 62 and three-quarters. But in the previous volume, where the age was not given, he must have been at least 49, if not 50. Which would be fine, other than the fact that in the previous volume his son Gerald had only just met Josey... and in this book, they have a 16-year-old son.

I enjoyed reading it, but it would be quite confusing for anyone who had not read the previous volumes. Recommended to anyone wanting to learn more about the fictional Plass family - and there's the bonus of a very interesting introduction, about the real Adrian Plass - but not if you haven't come across them before. ( )