Father Joe

Father Joe, by Tony Hendra

Deeply felt and moving spiritual autobiography of a man who was a founding editor of "National Lampoon", this is also a love letter for a dearest friend, Father Joe, a Benedictine monk of Quarr Abbey on the Isle of Wight. As a teen-ager Tony was taken to Father Joe for spiritual counseling by the husband who discovered his wife trying to seduce Tony. Tony becomes totally absorbed by Father Joe and the Benedictine way of life and vows to become a monk. An unwanted scholarship to Cambridge University where, in his second year, Tony sees "Beyond the Fringe", derails his plans. He decides to save the world through laughter instead. Years later, after one failed and one failing marriage, a writing career where blasphemy has largely become the order of the day, Tony feels despair, that his life has no meaning, that he himself is incapable of love. He re-establishes his close connection with Father Joe who has kept in touch all these years. Gradually Tony regains his faith and his marriage is revitalized. After Father Joe's death from cancer in 1998, Tony sums up what Father meant to him, "He was the living breathing proof that love will teach you everything you really need to know..."' and "Father Joe was the human incarnation of Blake's vision: you can find eternity in a grain of sand."
-Nancy