Adrian Plass
Encyclopedia
Adrian Plass is a British
author and speaker who writes primarily Christian
humour
, but also short stories
, Bible
commentaries and novel
s with a more serious tone. His most popular books are a series concerning The Sacred Diary of Adrian Plass which is a humorous, fictional satire
of Christian life and which has sold over a million copies worldwide.
Adrian Mole
books, is a humorous, fictional satire
of Christian life. Plass followed this up with a sequel in 1997, called The Sacred Diary of Adrian Plass Christian Speaker Aged 45 3/4, in which as a prominent Christian speaker he tours Australia with his fictional wife Anne and son Gerald. A third in the series, The Sacred Diary of Adrian Plass, on Tour: Aged Far Too Much to Be Put on the Front Cover of a Book was published in 2004. By 2005 this series had sold over a million copies worldwide.
He travels around Britain and the world as speaker. Some of his early talks and sketches are brought together in the books Cabbages for the King (1993) and Clearing Away the Rubbish (1988).
From 2001 to 2006 Plass teamed up with Focus on the Family
Radio Theatre in their original miniseries Father Gilbert Mysteries to provide the voice of the lead character, Father Louis Gilbert, a former London
police detective who became an Anglican priest and now solves spiritual mysteries in the fictional Sussex
village of Stonebridge.
In 2006 Plass published his book Blind Spots in the Bible in which he looks at forty passages in the Bible which have troubled him in the past. Reviewing this book, The Church Times said that he treated the biblical text with kid gloves so the investigation is personal application with a great deal of autobiographical material (probably too much), and concludes there is a great deal to mull over. The Church of England Newspaper says that although it would be unrealistic to claim that Plass has solved all the mysteries, he does offer interesting theories which lead to one major conclusion. that is A Caring God, and concludes there is much to think about, although fundamentalist Christians may not agree with the author.
In 2009 Plass published a novel Silver Birches based on his experiences of a group of old friends meeting for a reunion.
Plass is an Anglican
who lives with his wife Bridget in Scargill House
in Yorkshire
, England
.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
author and speaker who writes primarily Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
humour
Humour
Humour or humor is the tendency of particular cognitive experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement...
, but also short stories
Short story
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...
, Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
commentaries and novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
s with a more serious tone. His most popular books are a series concerning The Sacred Diary of Adrian Plass which is a humorous, fictional satire
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
of Christian life and which has sold over a million copies worldwide.
Work
His most popular book The Sacred Diary of Adrian Plass Aged 37¾, the title of which parodies Sue Townsend'sSue Townsend
-Adrian Mole series:* The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13¾ , her best selling book, and the best-selling new British fiction book of the 1980s.* The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole * The True Confessions of Adrian Albert Mole...
Adrian Mole
Adrian Mole
Adrian Albert Mole is the fictional protagonist in a series of books by English author Sue Townsend. The character first appeared in a BBC Radio 4 play in 1982. The books are written in the form of a diary, with some additional content such as correspondence...
books, is a humorous, fictional satire
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
of Christian life. Plass followed this up with a sequel in 1997, called The Sacred Diary of Adrian Plass Christian Speaker Aged 45 3/4, in which as a prominent Christian speaker he tours Australia with his fictional wife Anne and son Gerald. A third in the series, The Sacred Diary of Adrian Plass, on Tour: Aged Far Too Much to Be Put on the Front Cover of a Book was published in 2004. By 2005 this series had sold over a million copies worldwide.
He travels around Britain and the world as speaker. Some of his early talks and sketches are brought together in the books Cabbages for the King (1993) and Clearing Away the Rubbish (1988).
From 2001 to 2006 Plass teamed up with Focus on the Family
Focus on the Family
Focus on the Family is an American evangelical Christian tax-exempt non-profit organization founded in 1977 by psychologist James Dobson, and is based in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Focus on the Family is one of a number of evangelical parachurch organizations that rose to prominence in the 1980s...
Radio Theatre in their original miniseries Father Gilbert Mysteries to provide the voice of the lead character, Father Louis Gilbert, a former London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
police detective who became an Anglican priest and now solves spiritual mysteries in the fictional Sussex
Sussex
Sussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is an historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...
village of Stonebridge.
In 2006 Plass published his book Blind Spots in the Bible in which he looks at forty passages in the Bible which have troubled him in the past. Reviewing this book, The Church Times said that he treated the biblical text with kid gloves so the investigation is personal application with a great deal of autobiographical material (probably too much), and concludes there is a great deal to mull over. The Church of England Newspaper says that although it would be unrealistic to claim that Plass has solved all the mysteries, he does offer interesting theories which lead to one major conclusion. that is A Caring God, and concludes there is much to think about, although fundamentalist Christians may not agree with the author.
In 2009 Plass published a novel Silver Birches based on his experiences of a group of old friends meeting for a reunion.
Biography
Adrian Plass worked as a residential child care worker with disadvantaged children for several years before suffering a breakdown and then embarking on a career as a writer. The first thing he ever wrote was "The Visit", a short novel in which a fictional local Church in England is visited by Jesus (published in England only as part of the short stories collection The Final Boundary). "Der Besuch" is the German version of the novel which was made into a 40 minutes film in 2006. He recorded his experience as a youth worker in the novel Broken Windows, Broken Lives.Plass is an Anglican
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
who lives with his wife Bridget in Scargill House
Scargill house
Scargill House is a Christian Conference Centre run by the Scargill Movement and located in Wharfedale, in the county of North Yorkshire, England....
in Yorkshire
Yorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
.
Novels
- Broken Windows, Broken Lives (1988)
- An Alien At St.Wilfred's (1992)
- A Year At St. Yorick's (1998)
- Ghosts: The Story of a Reunion (2001)
- Silver Birches (2009)
Collections
- The Final Boundary (1987)
- The Visit and Other Short Stories (1991)
- Father to the Man (1997)
- Nothing But the Truth (2002)
- And Jesus Will Be Born (2003)
- Best in Plass: Stories, Songs, Poems, and Sketches (2010)
- Silences and Nonsenses (poems) (2010)
Other Works
- The Sacred Diary of Adrian Plass Aged 37 3/4 (1987)
- Clearing Away the Rubbish (1988)
- The Horizontal Epistles of Andromeda Veal (1988)
- The Theatrical Tapes of Leonard Thynn (1989)
- A Smile of the Face of God (1990)
- View From A Bouncy Castle (1991)
- Cabbages for the King (1993)
- The Unlocking (1993)
- The Sacred Diary of Adrian Plass Aged 45 3/4 (1994)
- You Say Tomato (1995) (with Paul McCuskerPaul McCuskerPaul McCusker is a writer and producer best known for his work on Adventures in Odyssey, a nationally-syndicated radio drama, and for his work with Focus on the Family's Radio Theatre. He has written over 50 books, 21 plays and 4 musicals. His best known works are the play "Catacombs", the novels...
) - When You Walk (1997)
- City of Gold (1997)
- Words from the Cross (1997)
- The Visit: Would You Be Ready? (1999)
- Philip Illott (1999)
- Why I Follow Jesus (2000)
- Colours of Survival (2000) (with Bridget Plass)
- From Growing Up Pains to the Sacred Diary (2002)
- Never Mind the Reversing Ducks (2002)
- The Heart of the Family (2003)
- The Sacred Diary of Adrian Plass, On Tour (2004)
- The Son of God Is Dancing (2005) (with Bridget Plass)
- Jesus - Safe, Tender, Extreme (2006)
- Blind Spots in the Bible (2006)
- Bacon Sandwiches & Salvation (2007)
- Looking Good, Being Bad (2009)
- Growing Up Following Jesus (2009)
- Seriously Funny: Life, Love and God...Musings Between Two Good Friends (2010) (with Jeff LucasJeff LucasJeff Lucas is a popular international author, speaker and broadcaster.-Career:Jeff Lucas is an international speaker, author and broadcaster. He is a teaching pastor at Timberline Church in Fort Collins, Colorado. He broadcasts on radio - In Good Company [Premier Radio], and daily thoughts on UCB...
)