AN OUTSPOKEN woman vicar and two of her parishioners have all launched new books.

Rev Dr Miranda Threlfall-Holmes, vicar of Belmont and Pittington, in County Durham, and a prominent campaigner for the ordination of women bishops, has published a short history of Christianity.

Titled The Essential History of Christianity, the book is the Durham vicar’s third and was described by the Right Reverend Justin Welby, the Bishop of Durham and next Archbishop of Canterbury, as: ‘well placed, interesting... you will read this with fascination and find yourself better informed and thinking hard as a result’.

Rev Threlfall-Holmes said: “I wrote this book because I found that, though people love history, they are often nervous of the history of Christianity because it just seems such a big subject.

“The fact that most books of Christian history are so thick doesn’t help. I was looking for a suitable book to recommend to people wanting a beginners’ guide, something easy to read and entertaining, and I just couldn’t find the right book, so I thought I’d better write it.”

Meanwhile, Dave Arnott, a churchwarden at St Laurence’s Church, in Pittington, has written a science fiction novel called Findings; and Anna Harvey, a member of the congregation at St Mary Magdalene Church, in Belmont, has published a poetry collection, titled: Grace.