BOTH the cover of this book (depicting still waters and brooding clouds) and its title caused some apprehension. I feared it might contain helpful tips on how to find more moments of quiet in a busy life through self-discipline, or a renewed determination to pray more. There are such guilt-inducing books around, but, happily, this is not one of them. It is a nourishing read, crafted skilfully. Quiet may be reclaimed; it is also redefined.

Sarah Clarkson spent the first three decades of her life in the United States, and, after the onset of a mental illness at 17, she experienced more than a decade “waiting for real life to begin” before coming to the UK to study. Within a few years, she married a husband who became a priest, and she soon bore four children; so hers is scarcely a life of cloistered serenity. Although not strictly a spiritual autobiography, Reclaiming Quiet is a deep reflection on the experience of darkness and disorientation in the author’s life, and her discovery that “this broken world is not what we were born for.”

She understands quiet not as a practice, but as a homeland, one in which a listening heart is nurtured by “small faithfulnesses” rather than “great feats”, illustrated by many examples of grace in everyday life as well as a wide range of literature. She acknowledges, too, the challenges of smartphones, social media, and deadlines, let alone the weight of domestic demands or the grief in the world. While humanity has never run short of ways to distract itself, she argues that, in the media age, distraction has become a way of life.

Finding this seed of quiet within, despite a distracting world, needs nurture from beyond ourselves. Raised in an Evangelical tradition, the author has discovered the value of liturgical worship, including the Book of Common Prayer. She describes the reception of holy communion at the eucharist with beauty and insight, and notes how sacramental worship “does not originate with my own effort or emotion”. That is something that our frazzled Church of England needs to rediscover. It is not just individual Christians who need to reclaim quiet. It is our beloved Church as a whole.

The Rt Revd Graham James is a former Bishop of Norwich and now an honorary assistant bishop in the diocese of Truro.

Reclaiming Quiet: Cultivating a life of holy attention
Sarah Clarkson
Baker £14.99
(978-1-5409-0052-4)
Church Times Bookshop £13.49