The Undelivered Mardle: A Memoir of Belief, Doubt and Delight, by John Rogers — review

This ‘wry soliloquy’, as Ronald Blythe calls The Undelivered Mardle in his introduction, is quite unlike anything else, although its ostensible subject, the history of a small Suffolk farmyard church and its parish (accompanied by three excellent maps) might suggest otherwise. Asked to give a talk or ‘mardle’ to raise money for the priory church at Letheringham, and having established that he might ‘question the sense of preserving such relics’, John Rogers paid a series of meditative visits over several months. On the day he was to deliver the mardle he had a heart attack; afterwards, ‘feeling rather feeble’ and aware that as a public speaker he was ‘unpredictable’, he decided to write it down instead.

Via such figures as his delightful father-in-law, a ‘Blue Domer’, and the old friend, ‘a devout atheist’ who speaks of people ‘going to church to talk to their imaginary friend’, his account of the church and its material and spiritual vicissitudes, leads him to the question of what churchgoers, present and past, actually believe. Rogers tries to imagine what those first builders thought they were doing; and gathering, on the way, information from local people, architectural, historical and theological experts (including the Theological Beachcomber of Walberswick), what function such churches now serve.

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The old friend’s remark prompts a digression on the odd things people do converse with: including their ‘cars, golf balls, photographs of loved ones, wooden legs, bread (while it rises), dogs and cats, trees and flowers’ and, notably, their penises. He himself has over the years projected onto an ancient teddy bear

some of the human qualities I admire: patience, equanimity, quiet wisdom, modesty, politeness, good looks, a sense of humour, courage, a taste for adventure and a respect for fair play…

Retired tree-planter, teacher and bible-shortener (The Basic Bible: Key Readings with Notes, Hutchinson, 1977), the author belongs in the company of Cobbett and Blake: eccentric, visionary and earthy.