Toward the end of 2008 I was naturally pleased that one or two scribes in reputable print outlets (notably Robert Collins in the Observer and Boyd Tonkin in the Independent) recommended Crusaders to their readers as a Christmas gift-purchase. But, since my reading is only so wide, I wasn't to know that at the same time the Durham-educated retired clergyman Frank Sargeant (Bishop both of Stockport and of Lambeth in his day) had taken the time to write in the Retired Clergy Association Newsletter of Christmas 2008 that "If you have a Christmas book token, you may like to investigate 'How others see us' by reading Crusaders by Richard T Kelly..."This I learn via the blog Dulverton Ramblings, which also reproduces Joel Rickett's January 2008 Crusaders interview with me from the Independent on Sunday. Ah, happy memories... and how time flies, for the estimable Mr Rickett, at that time deputy editor of the Bookseller, is now an editorial director at Viking Penguin, actively bringing books into the world rather than heralding their arrivals.
