QUENTIN LETTS is a distinguished parliamentary sketch writer, City diarist, and theatre critic. He says that in these he writes about character, not policy. In his new novel, Nunc!, that skill is beautifully and charmingly employed. The core of the novel is a moving tale of a fantasy Jerusalem, around the time of the birth of Jesus Christ.

The central character is Simeon, who, we know from St Luke’s Gospel, held the Christ-child in his arms and sang the Nunc Dimittis, “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace.” Simeon is surrounded by a group of kindly, eccentric characters, who are more likely to be found in a Herefordshire pub than any historical, first-century Jerusalem square. That is the point of the novel.

The novel begins and ends with a cathedral-type Herefordshire town. There, Alex Symons is rather brutally told by his consultant that his cancer is terminal and he has only six months to live. Quentin Letts’s brother and sister both died of cancer. In the novel, Alex takes lots of pain killers, drinks a lot of wine in the pub, and finally goes into the cathedral and hears the transforming singing of the Nunc Dimittis. Then Alex goes into a trance-like fantasy about Simeon’s imagined Jerusalem. Simeon is a young soldier. While he is having an affair with Anna, his young wife and baby are dying during childbirth. Guilty and distressed, Simeon is visited by a grumpy angel who says that he will not die until he sees the Messiah.

The novel goes on during the ageing of Simeon with a series of amusing stories. But then the Wise Men arrive and tell Herod that they have come to worship his replacement. The locals say that they are not wise, but are “eejits”, which is Irish slang for “stupid fools”. Thus the horror of the death of the innocents. Simeon and his gentle friends organise an exciting escape for the Holy Family.

Beneath the warmth and amusing tales, Letts gives many very profound insights into the nature of love, loss, and accepting death. He writes beautifully. In the last chapter, Letts tells of looking at a photo of the smiling Alex Symons holding his new born grandson. He says that Alex fought and fought against his coming death until he held his baby grandson and from that moment accepted and was at peace. Lord, now let us depart in peace.
 

The Ven. Dr Lyle Dennen is Archdeacon Emeritus of Hackney, in east London.

Nunc!
Quentin Letts
Little, Brown £18.99
(978-1-4087-2284-8)
Church Times Bookshop £17.09