Of A Bookshop Window

I read an observation written by Charles Moore in Notes of the 20 June issue of Spectator. So, I walked by said bookshop, stared at the window display and had a good giggle. Of course I went in to poke around as well.

"Walking past the Church House bookshop in Westminster this week, I noticed an entire window display devoted to one book. It was called Lay Presidency at the Eucharist? An Anglican Approach. What a perfectly undumbed-down title - not the faintest attempt to vulgarise, or, indeed, to interest anyone in any way. Right down to the question mark and the offer of 'an' approach rather than 'the' approach, it had a wonderful Anglican tentativeness about it. I felt it would be crassly against the spirit of such a publication to march in and buy it."

Then I read Notes in the 11 July issue and completely cracked up.

"This column recently reported (Notes 20 June) a display in the Church House bookshop in Westminster devoting an entire window to a book with the defiantly ungripping title of Lay Presidency at the Eucharist? An Anglican Approach. Perhaps the staff were stung by this mention, because the display has been replaced by another, veering wildly to the opposite extreme. The book now promoted is called If You Meet George Herbert on the road, Kill Him."