Anthony Trollope’s novels contain vivid character sketches of clergy, from bishops to curates, as watchers of the BBC TV Barchester series will know. Here are priests where snobbery, jealousy, ambition and greed sit alongside love, kindness and generosity, often in equal measure.

Alongside each of his twelve pictures of Trollopian priests, Michael Higgins has created their modern counterparts, Trollope’s Church of England may have been better attended and more prosperous than it is today yet the humble, quiet and attractive Mr Harding and the climbing ambitious Mr Slope still walk the streets of our parishes. They stand as living proof human nature never changes, the simple truth underlined by each pair of characters in this book.

Here is a gripping, thought provoking read which will tell you more about clergy than you knew or imagined – whether you are “into” Church matters or a curious outsider.