From Here to Heaven (by Tom Walker)

(Amazon UK link)

I'm not entirely sure how this book ended up on my shelves, but I probably bought it second-hand. The author, Tom Walker, used to be the vicar (or rector, as the book says) of a church fairly near where we lived, and we knew some people who attended. Perhaps it was his name that attracted me to the book in the first place, but I don't think I'd ever read it.

'From here to heaven' describes the author's journey to faith. He had something of a 'religious' childhood, with music and hymns being very important to him. As a young adult he decided that atheism made more sense, but God kept on believing in him, and so eventually he came to faith in Christ, and followed a call to the Anglican ministry.

The writing is good, although there were rather too many digressions (for my taste) into Scriptural verses and explanations, which rather interrupted the flow. I was interested in the autobiographical elements of the story, and would like to have read more about the author's wife and family; instead there were chapters about spiritual warfare, healing, and other such subjects, with a few anecdotes and a great deal of teaching. It felt almost as if two possible books had been merged into one, and it didn't quite work.

I was a little disappointed that I didn't really feel as if I knew the author any better by the end, although I certainly knew more about him than I did. The 'teaching' sections didn't say anything new, and by the end I was rather skimming them.

Not a bad read, but I doubt if it would be of much interest to the general public. Written in 1987, and long out of print.

Review copyright Sue's Book Reviews, 5th December 2010