A powerful memoir about faith and doubt, with a strong meditative and philosophical heart
Richard Holloway was Bishop of Edinburgh and Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church. A former Gresham Professor of Divinity and Chairman of the Joint Board of the Scottish Arts Council and Scottish Screen, he is a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Leaving Alexandria won the PEN/Ackerley Prize 2013 and was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize 2013. Richard Holloway has written for many newspapers in Britain, including The Times, Guardian, Observer, Herald and the Scotsman. He has also presented many series for BBC television and radio.
At a time when the world has urgently needed wise and compassionate
leadership, this poignant memoir, written with the integrity,
intelligence and wit that we expect from Richard Holloway, lays
bare the ludicrous and entirely unnecessary mess we have made of
religion
* * Karen Armstrong * *
Leaving Alexandria is many things. It is a compelling account of a
journey through life, told with great frankness; it is a subtle
reflection on what it means to live in an imperfect and puzzling
world; and it is a highly readable insight into one of the most
humane and engaged minds of our times. It is, quite simply, a
wonderful book
*Alexander McCall Smith*
Richard Holloway's memoir is endlessly vivid and fascinating. It's
the record of a mind too large, too curious and far too generous to
be confined within any single religious denomination. His account
of how a passionate, intelligent boy grew out of a poor and
deprived background without ever losing touch with the humane
values it gave him, will be a delight and inspiration to believers,
non-believers, and ex-believers alike
*Philip Pullman*
An enlightening walk through a life that encompasses West Africa,
the Gorbals, rent strikes, the divided self and the question of
grace
* * Scotland on Sunday * *
Exceptional...it is rare to find someone in whom intellectual and
emotional intelligence combine so movingly
* * Intelligent Life * *
Nobody could fail to be intensely moved by the final chapters of
his memoir . . . a deeply lovable man; and what a wonderful book he
has written
* * The Observer * *
A wonderfully honest and deeply moving reflection on the nature of
doubt, saintly almost in its modesty - though Holloway might not
like my saying so. A breath of fresh doubt that so many of us need,
whether believer or nonbeliever, and I'm both
*MICHAEL MORPURGO*
Leaving Alexandria gives a profound sense of the benefits, as well
as the difficulties, that accrue from taking a zigzag path through
life . . . it summarises an argument that a lot of people will find
sympathetic, as well as compelling
* * The Guardian * *
[A] highly absorbing and perceptive memoir
* * Times Literary Supplement * *
This is a portrait of a formerly devoted Christian who, by
confessing his faults and doubts to us, becomes exemplary, an
Everyman, and a guide to how we too might lose faith without
sacrificing our souls
* * The Times * *
A profound and lyrical book
* * Independent i * *
Captures the bewildering range of churches within the Church . . .
Holloway certainly throws down the gauntlet - with a quiet, elegiac
passion - to Christians who arm themselves in certainty . . . They
should read this wide, erudite book as a matter of urgency
* * The Sunday Telegraph * *
This book offers quite unique insights into a troubled,
contemporary religious mind. It also reminds us that, in Richard
Holloway, Episcopal Edinburgh may have lost a thoughtful bishop but
Scotland gained a unique social critic and commentator
* * Lothian Life * *
This is a deeply moving and disturbing biography. Holloway, is a
confident author, assured when recreating both the past and the
feelings that moments evoked...A writer capable of considerable
brilliance, an intellectual who can provoke thought, a genuinely
good man trying to be better
* * The Herald * *
Peppered with prose and poetry, the book underlines a profound love
of literature. Holloway's own writing style is elegant and lucid,
particularly when addressing religion
* * The Skinny * *
This is an intellectual account which is thoughtful, starkly
honest, and at moments touching in its understated wisdom and
sensitivity . . . an engaging examination of an individual's growth
as a compassionate human being
* * We Love this Book * *
It absorbs and refreshes the mind . . . it is the pleasure of
following a good, restless mind through questions that afflict all
but the most thoughtless
* * Financial Times * *
Wise, sympathetic and absorbing . . . it is a profoundly humane
vision of what religion should be
* * Sunday Times * *
Beautifully written and dramaturgically candid
* * The Independent * *
Leaving Alexandria is a profound, personal investigation of the
virtues and flaws of religion and the most stirring autobiography I
have read in a great many years. It is also a meditation on the
nature of one's own identity
* * New Statesman * *
At a moment when religious and atheistic attitudes are becoming
increasingly hardened, the former Bishop of Edinburgh offers a
timely reminder that faith shares a greater philosophical affinity
with doubt than with certainty . . . this wholly humane book
chisels out an oasis for calm contemplation amid today's hysterical
religious battlegrounds
* * Metro * *
A beautifully written and often funny, emotional and intellectual
self-exploration by one of the most extraordinary churchmen of our
time
* * Sunday Times * *
His memoirs are not a chronicle of achievement but rather a study
of failure and frustration. Marked by a searing honesty and an
almost morbid sense of introspection, they make for a disturbing
and unsettling read which brought me close to tears more than
once
* * The Tablet * *
[Leaving Alexandria] could have been a litany of
self-justification, or an awakening to enlightenment. Instead, it's
the book of his life: the engrossing log of a troubled, thoughtful,
clouded journey from certainty to doubt
* * Mail on Sunday * *
The book is beautifully written and full of wide knowledge of
literature, art and music. It will help all who struggle to find
the light. That means most of us
* * West End Extra * *
This is a gentle, rational book that is required reading for
today's troubled world
* * Daily Telegraph * *
Leaving Alexandria is a profound, personal investigation of the
virtues and flaws of religion and the most stirring autobiography I
have read in a great many years
* * New Statesman * *
Publishers like to describe autobiographies as 'journeys', but it's
a term this book deserves
* * the Herald * *
There's something to cheer on almost every page here, not least his
enviable honesty about his personal shortcomings
* * Irish Times * *
This voyage of discovery is the core of this wonderfully written,
poetic telling of his chequered life and was one of the most
acclaimed memoirs of 2012
* * Good Book Guide * *
An intelligent and insightful book
* * Sunday Business Post * *
Unsparingly honest
* * Spectator * *
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