DOROTHY SAYERS was not only a much admired writer of detective stories: she was a major apologist for the Christian faith through her radio plays. In these letters, she comes across as clear, forthright, and witty. Unfortunately, when these letters were written, Herbert Kelly was past his prime, and, as Dorothy Sayers complains, it was not always easy to follow his thought as he jumped quickly from one point to another. Nor is it easy to gather from these letters exactly why he made such an impact on people.

His major achievement was to found Kelham and train hundreds of young men with little educational background for the priesthood. Life at Kelham is well described by Richard Holloway in his autobiography, Leaving Alexandria. Vincent Strudwick, who was also at Kelham, suggests that Kelly’s impact was due to a number of factors: his natural enthusiasm, his commitment to a God who embraced the whole world and everything in it rather than religion, his desire to get students to think for themselves rather than follow a line, his capacity to both question the faith and pray it, his down-to-earth language, and his humour. What comes across from these letters, however, is his sense of having failed, and a pained regret that his writings had not been more widely recognised.

What both correspondents share in these letters is commitment to a definite faith rather than a vague spirituality. This faith is in the Holy Trinity, and, in the early letters, they spend some time trying out various analogies to help us to understand this better. For Sayers in particular, this faith is not only definite, but dramatic, the most dramatic story ever told; hence her passion to use her gifts to convey this to a wider public. She loved Augustine, but said Aquinas depressed her, as he had “a mind like a filing cabinet, with everything ticketed away”. Kelly disagreed.

The letters reveal two people who respected and liked each other, who can argue in a friendly fashion, and who have nice touches of humour. At one point, Kelly writes that he may never be in London again. “Life out of bed is hardly worth living.”

Scholastica Jacob has done an excellent, scholarly job putting these letters together. There are helpful footnotes with details of the main characters mentioned, timelines for both writers, and full details of the letters quoted.

The Rt Revd Lord Harries of Pentregarth is a former Bishop of Oxford, and an Hon. Professor of Theology at King’s College, London.

The Letters of Herbert Kelly SSM and Dorothy L. Sayers 1937-1950
Scholastica Jacob, editor
Society of the Sacred Mission £11.99
(978-1-0687286-0-0)
Church Times Bookshop £10.79