“Look at it!” she almost screamed. “It’s all about you! Why would anyone want to read a book all about you?”

Desperately, I cast about for a suitable riposte. “But Keith Miller wrote a book that was all about Keith Miller, and that turned out to be a bestseller.”

“Keith Miller is famous! You are not famous!”

“Yes, now he is, after writing the book! Back then no one had even heard of him!” I wanted to say, but didn’t.

My critic was right about two things. Yes, a lot of it is about me; and no, I’m not famous. I make no apologies for either.

We live in an age of celebrity Christianity, and this is as true in the world of publishing as elsewhere. Publishers are in the business of selling books, and the most effective way of doing this is to select authors who are already well known in other spheres. Pastors of megachurches, established television personalities, stars from the worlds of sports, politics, and the media can all fit the bill.

This is fine, up to a point. These people may have earned their success by hard work and perseverance, and there may be much that we can learn from their examples. At the same time, however, there’s a danger thawe can end up with an unbalanced view of Christianity that has little or nothing to do with the reality of the ordinary believers who make up most of the church-going public.

• From the Introduction (Keith Miller wrote A Taste of New Wine back in the 70’s. It ws one of a handful of books that helped me massively at the time)

If you’re reaing the book, for fun I’ve added some photos taken at the time of later of scenes from the book that may bring it a bit more to light.