Author, BBC Radio 4 presenter and Vicar of Finedon, Reverend Richard Coles, is joined by Gogglebox star and Church of England priest, Reverend Kate Bottley to discuss his thrilling new small-town mystery, Murder Before Evensong.

The first in his Canon Clement Mystery series, Murder Before Evensong is a crime story set against a quaint village backdrop and follows an unsuspecting rector who is inadvertently called upon to solve a series of grizzly deaths in his small parish.

A multi-hyphenate, spanning the worlds of literature, music and religion, Coles joins this year’s festival for an enlightening discussion about his eclectic life and his new adventures in crime writing.

About The Author

Reverend Richard Coles

The Reverend Richard Coles is the presenter of Saturday Live on BBC Radio 4. He is also the only vicar in Britain to have had a number-one hit single (The Communards’ ‘Don’t Leave Me This Way’) and appeared on Strictly Come Dancing. He read Theology at King’s College London and after ordination worked as a curate in Lincolnshire and subsequently at St Paul’s Church in Knightsbridge, London, and in the parish of Finedon, Northamptonshire. He is the author of ‘Lives of The ‘Improbable Saints’, two memoirs, ‘Fathomless Riches’ and ‘Bringing in the Sheaves’, the Sunday Times bestseller ‘The Madness of Grief’ and ‘Murder Before Evensong’, the first novel in the Canon Clement mystery series.

About The Journalist

Headshot of Kate Bottley

Kate Bottley

Originally from Sheffield, the Reverend Canon Kate Bottley is a priest in North Nottinghamshire. Ordained in 2008, she is passionate about bringing stories of faith and belief to the widest audience possible. Kate was not raised in a church-going family and started going to church because she fancied the local vicar’s son. They have been married since 1998 and have two children.

In 2012 Kate did a dance as part of a wedding flashmob which subsequently went viral, with more than seven million hits on YouTube; it was this that led to her being approached by Channel 4’s BAFTA and National Television Award-winning series show Gogglebox.

She presents BBC Radio 2’s weekly show, Good Morning Sunday, with Jason Mohammed. Kate is a frequent guest contributor on BBC Radio 2’s Pause for Thought and has also presented the station’s The Sunday Hour.

Kate is regular presenter on Songs of Praise (BBC 1). She fronted Alone With the In-Laws (BBC 2) and In The Footsteps of Judas, a flagship Easter documentary for BBC 1.

She has also made guest appearances on Steph’s Packed Lunch, The Wheel, Celebrity Masterchef, Celebrity Sewing Bee, Hairy Bikers Cracking Christmas, The One Show, Rip Off Britain (BBC 1) 8 Out of 10 Cats (Channel 4) and many more. In 2017, Kate journeyed to Camino de Santiago for BBC 2’s The Pilgrimage.

Kate has written for a variety of newspapers and magazines including The Guardian, The Independent and Radio Times.

She is taking a break from full-time parish ministry but will continue to take church services and officiate at weddings and funerals, as part of a wider remit which will include writing and broadcasting projects.