This is a work of sociology, not of history. Based on responses to a questionnaire sent to ‘a large number of bishops active in the Church of England between 1940 and 2000, and by their wives and children’ (p. 1), the authors seek to trace the processes by which the Anglican tradition has, within living memory, been transmitted, modified and in some cases rejected.

Genuine insights are thin on the ground in the early chapters: ‘Theologically, episcopacy has come to be a focal concept of Anglican identity’ (p. 73); nor can it come as any surprise that most bishops were consecrated only after early careers as parish priests, rural deans or archdeacons or that ‘the pastoral needs of the diocese … were of paramount importance to them’ (p. 56). More striking is the statistic that the University of Cambridge still dominates in the selection of recruits to the episcopal bench: of the bishops answering the questionnaire, 52 per cent had trained there, as against 22 per cent at Oxford and a mere 16 per cent at other universities or theological colleges (p. 33). The book comes alive in its fourth chapter, from which it emerges that there can be many tensions between diocesans and their suffragan bishops. Chapter v explores the dilemmas of the clergyman's wife. Must she abandon all hope of pursuing an independent career in order to be an unpaid parochial helper to her husband and, later perhaps, the unpaid hostess of a diocesan establishment? Most wives who responded to the questionnaire were by then in their eighties and thus came from a generation which was far more content than later ones to adopt a supportive role or else, more positively, to deploy their energies in creating a ‘shared ministry’. However, 28 per cent stated that they had managed to pursue a career ‘wholly separate’ from that of their husbands (p. 101). The following three chapters focus on the responses of children brought up in clerical and diocesan households, with particular reference to the increasing marginalisation of the Church of England as a social and moral force. Despite many examples of reluctant accommodation to, and outright rejection of, parental norms ‘it is worth noting that a minority (=significant minority?) of clergy children have embraced the integrated model of religion, family and work associated with their parents’ (p. 176). There are a number of interesting case studies here but the fact remains that this is a slim book – given analytical tables and necessary blanks a mere 170 pages of text, with dozens of references which could have been turned into footnotes bracketed within it – and at a price of £50 is therefore unlikely to reach the ‘must have’ lists of university history faculties. Its appeal will be largely confined to the present hierarchy of the Church of England and it must be hazarded that they have other things to do with their limited financial resources. They may also be irritated to discover that all parish clergy are invariably described as vicars. No rectors any more? It might have been better to use the stark designation ‘incumbent’ for those serving in urban, rural or Team ministries.