David Adam, whose collections of prayer and meditations in the Christian Celtic tradition are highly regarded and popular, has written what he claims to be “not an autobiography”. It does, however, detail his life and thoughts starting with the romantic encounter between his father, an itinerant labourer and his mother, a traveller and their marriage within a week, to his own life experiences as a miner and then priest and his ability to see wonder in everything. At 15, David Adam started at his local Durham coal mine where he worked in a series of jobs both under and over ground. However, the wonder of the world around him caused him to stun his father when he told him he wanted to be a vicar! Following his clerical training at Kelham, known as the Church of England’s Commando Course, then with two curacies and twenty three years as vicar at Denby in North Yorkshire, he finally found his ideal ministry as the vicar of Holy Island Beautifully and engagingly written, each chapter ends with a Thought, an Exercise and a Prayer, with relevant poems and readings throughout the book