Is Anybody Up There?

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A testing but enjoyable read - Rated
I suspect that Paul Arnott's new book on God and faith will find sympathy with many of his readers. It manages to combine a poignant story of his own faith with thought provoking insight into belief and a proper education in comparative religion - not something I ever got at school. The whole is wrapped up in Arnott's charming and easy narrative. It made me think about my own beliefs- and/or lack of them - harder than I have for a long time.

Perfectly timed comic memoir - Rated
I read the author's last book LET ME EAT CAKE and hadn't laughed so much while reading for years. Amazon sent me a reminder when this new book came out so I pre-ordered and received it a few days before publication. He seems to me to have done it again. He's taken a huge subject - this time, all religions and faiths - and through a sequence of really funny and often warm stories he has given me an understanding of history I would never have got from a more earnest book. I did read both Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins on God recently, and I feel that their overconfidence is brilliantly trumped by Arnott's self-mockery, in which he rather cleverly discloses the real meaning of humility without you realising it until the end. A lot of fun - and how many god books can make that claim?