Richard Coles Popular Books
Richard Coles Biography & Facts
Richard Keith Robert Coles (born 26 March 1962) is an English writer, radio presenter and Church of England priest. He first came to prominence as the multi-instrumentalist who partnered Jimmy Somerville in the 1980s band the Communards. They achieved three UK top ten hits, including the No. 1 record and best-selling single of 1986, a dance version of "Don't Leave Me This Way". Coles frequently appears on radio and television as well as in newspapers and, from March 2011 until March 2023, was the co-host of BBC Radio 4's Saturday Live programme. He is a regular contributor to QI, Would I Lie to You? and Have I Got News for You. He is an author, the chancellor of the University of Northampton, a former honorary chaplain to the Worshipful Company of Leathersellers, and a patron of social housing project Greatwell Homes in Wellingborough. Early life Coles was born in Northampton, England. His grandfather was a prosperous shoe manufacturer. The company failed under Coles's father, because of the increasing popularity of cheaper foreign imports, and the family lost much of their wealth. He was educated at the independent Wellingborough School (where he was a choirboy), and at the South Warwickshire College of Further Education (Department of Drama & the Liberal Arts) in Stratford-upon-Avon. He later attended King's College London, where he studied theology from 1990. Coles was awarded an MA by research from the University of Leeds in 2005 for work on the Greek text of the Epistle to the Ephesians. Musical career Coles learned to play the saxophone, clarinet and keyboards and moved to London in 1980, where he played in theatre. In 1983, he appeared with Jimmy Somerville in the Lesbian and Gay Youth Video Project film Framed Youth: The Revenge of the Teenage Perverts, which won the Grierson Award. Coles joined Bronski Beat (initially on saxophone) in 1983. Somerville left Bronski Beat and in 1985 he and Coles formed the Communards, who were together for just over three years and had three UK top 10 hits, including the biggest-selling single of 1986, a version of "Don't Leave Me This Way", which was at number one for four weeks. The band split in 1988 and Somerville went solo. Post-music career and church ministry Coles provided narration for the Style Council's film JerUSAlem in 1987 and also started a career as a writer, particularly with the Times Literary Supplement and the Catholic Herald. He took up religion in his late twenties, after "the best of times, the worst of times", pop success and the deaths of friends as a result of HIV. From 1991 to 1994 he studied for a BA in theology at King's College London. While at university, Coles became a Roman Catholic and remained so for the next ten years before returning to Anglicanism in 2001. Coles was selected for training for the priesthood in the Church of England and began his training at the College of the Resurrection, Mirfield, West Yorkshire, in 2003, before being ordained in 2005. After ordination, he was a curate at St Botolph's Church in Boston, Lincolnshire and then at St Paul's Church, Knightsbridge in London. He has been chaplain of the Royal Academy of Music, played Dr Frank N Furter in a local concert and conducted an atheist funeral for Mo Mowlam in 2005. Coles was an inspiration for the character of Adam Smallbone (played by Tom Hollander) in BBC Two sitcom Rev. and was also an advisor to the show. Coles mentions in his book Fathomless Riches that he is also the inspiration for the character "Tom" in the Bridget Jones novels. In January 2011, Coles was appointed as the vicar of St Mary the Virgin, Finedon in the Diocese of Peterborough. Since 2011, Coles has been on the board of Wellingborough Homes, a social enterprise providing housing and community support for the Borough of Wellingborough and, after its name change to Greatwell Homes, became its Patron. In 2012, Coles was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Northampton and also became a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. In 2016, he was awarded an honorary DLitt by the University of Warwick. In 2019 he was appointed Honorary Chaplain to the Worshipful Company of Leathersellers. In July 2017, Coles was elected a Fellow of King's College London and separately as Chancellor of the University of Northampton. Coles retired as vicar of Finedon on Low Sunday 2022. Looking back on his time as a "half-time vicar", he said: ""How do you do all the things you do?" I am frequently asked, and the answer is by neglecting important things and disappointing people. I was once called in the middle of the night to attend a parishioner's deathbed and I could not because I was in Glasgow doing Celebrity Antiques Road Trip. I found someone to cover, but it should have been me." He explained: "I will still be a priest, I will always be a priest, and I will minister where I am able. Next month I am going to my first conference of prison chaplains and I hope I can make myself useful as a volunteer with inmates in the criminal justice system." In April 2022, Coles announced that he retired from parish duties due to the Church of England allegedly increasingly excluding gay couples, and what he described as its "conservative, punchy and fundamentalist" direction. Writing On 1 November 2012 (All Saints' Day), Darton, Longman and Todd published Coles's book, Lives of the Improbable Saints, illustrated by Ted Harrison, a précis of the life stories of nearly 200 lesser-known saints. The following year volume two, Legends of the Improbable Saints, was published. In 2014, the first volume of his memoirs, Fathomless Riches, was published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson. In 2016 a follow-up volume, Bringing in the Sheaves, was published. In June 2022, Coles's debut mystery novel Murder Before Evensong was released. It is intended to be first in a series about Canon Daniel Clement. The sequel, A Death In The Parish, was published on 8th June 2023. The first book has been optioned for a television adaptation, with Coles serving as an executive producer. In 2023, Coles signed a deal with W&N to write three more Canon Clement books. The first of these, Murder at the Monastery is due for release in June 2025. Broadcasting and media career Coles still works as a broadcaster, which he describes as "just showing off", including Nightwaves on Radio 3, which he formerly presented, and Newsnight Review on BBC Two. He has appeared on the Radio 4 panel game show Heresy twice; first in May 2008 and then in May 2010. Coles has appeared seven times as a guest on the topical television news quiz Have I Got News for You, in 1994, May 2009, May 2013, April 2016, June 2017, April 2020 and May 2021. He presented a special edition of Songs of Praise in January 2010. He was a guest on the Children in Need special of the BBC quiz Only Connect in November of the same year. In 2011, he presented a four-part Radio 3 series called Out in the World: A Global Gay History. He reg.... Discover the Richard Coles popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Richard Coles books.
Best Seller Richard Coles Books of 2024
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Murder at Bunting Manor
Greg Mosse'Fabulous, full of wit, mystery, romance and small town politics... The characters are witty, quirky... The plot is twisty and engaging with lots of red herrings... I enjoyed hunti...
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The Feast
Margaret KennedyThis summer holiday vintage crime classic exploring the mystery of a buried Cornish hotel invites us to solve the puzzle as detectives: perfect for fans of Celia Fremlin's Uncle Pa...
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Loving and Losing You, Azaylia
Safiyya Vorajee'Azaylia was guiding me every day and I loved being able to look up to the sky and tell her: "I want to be like you, Azaylia. You're my hero and my inspiration. You taught me this...
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Deadlight
Graham Hurley'There is no one writing better police procedurals today.' Daily TelegraphA twentyyearold crime throws DI Joe Faraday into the violent legacy of the Falklands War...Freshly promote...
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Murder at Church Lodge
Greg Mosse'Maisie Cooper is a brilliant main character, an everyday Miss Marple!... I love cosy crime and I loved this book!' Reader review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Maisie Cooper is no detective, thank you ver...
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Wrestling With His Angel
Sidney BlumenthalThe “magisterial” (The New York Times Book Review) second volume of Sidney Blumenthal’s acclaimed, landmark biography, The Political Life of Abraham Lincoln, reveals the future pre...
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Eugene Onegin
Alexander Pushkin & Stanley MitchellEugene Onegin is the master work of the poet whom Russians regard as the fountainhead of their literature. Set in 1820s Russia, Pushkin's verse novel follows the fates of three men...
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Touching Distance
Graham HurleyA killing without mercy. A crime with no motive. A thriller from the author of LAST FLIGHT TO STALINGRADThree random killings. Or something much, much worse? DS Jimmy Suttle is try...
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The Way We Live Now
Anthony Trollope & Frank KermodeAugustus Melmotte is a fraudulent foreign financier who preys on dissolute nobility using charm to tempt the weak into making foolish investments in his dubious schemes. Persuaded...
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The Woodlanders
Thomas Hardy & Patricia InghamWhen countrygirl Grace Melbury returns home from her middleclass school she feels she has risen above her suitor, the simple woodsman Giles Winterborne. Though marriage had been di...
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Fathomless Riches
Richard Coles'The best vicar ever' Caitlin Moran THE NO. 1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE CANON CLEMENT SERIESFATHOMLESS RICHES is the Reverend Richard Coles' warm, witty and wise memo...
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Cold Grave
Craig Robertson'Robertson is doing for Glasgow what Rankin did for Edinburgh' Mirror1993. Scotland is in the grip of an icecold winter and the Lake of Menteith is frozen over. A young man and wom...
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Eugene Onegin
Alexander PushkinThis novel in verse, said to be the parent of all Russian novels, is a tragic story of innocence, love and friendship. Eugene Onegin, an aristocrat, much like Pushkin and his peers...
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Denial
Peter JamesIntroducing policeman Glenn Branson...When actress Gloria Lamark takes her own life, her devoted son, Thomas, is heartbroken. Something must be wrong with a world in which such a t...
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The Wrong Child
Barry GornellHow far would you go to protect your child?When tragedy strikes in a small Scottish village, everyone in the community is affected.Most people believe one child is to blame for wha...
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The Secret
Deric HendersonThe killer dentist, his mistress, how they murdered their spouses and how they almost got away with it. Now a major fourpart ITV drama starring James Nesbitt: 'Unswitchoffable' Gu...
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Deadline
Simon KernickA captivating and taut thriller that will leave you holding your breath, from Sunday Times bestselling author Simon Kernick, the UK's answer to Harlan Coben.'The next time I see Si...
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Murder at the Theatre
Greg MosseA body in the theatre. A cast full of suspects. Can Maisie Cooper crack this case?Maisie Cooper is looking for peace and quiet. But the arrival of a troupe of actors for a new prod...
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Steeple Chasing
Peter RossThe Sunday Times paperback bestseller and Waterstones NonFiction Book of the MonthFeaturing a brand new chapter!'Never have the joys of exploring the churches and cathedrals of thi...
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The Cat Who Caught a Killer
L T ShearerThe Cat Who Caught a Killer by L T Shearer is a charming cosy crime read, set in West London, for fans of Richard Osman’s The Thursday Murder Club and S. J. Bennett’s The Windsor K...
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A Hero of Our Time
Mikhail LermontovA masterpiece of Russian prose, Lermontov's only novel was influential for many later 19th century authors, including Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, and Chekhov. Lermotov's hero, Pechorin, ...
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Sins of the Father
Graham HurleyDS Jimmy Suttle investigates a murder in a house haunted by the past in the latest from 'one of the UK's finest crime novelists' (INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY), author of LAST FLIGHT TO S...
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Me Moir - Volume One
Vic ReevesVic Reeves' vivid, enchanting, and utterly hilarious childhood memoir is a comic masterpiece.Before there was Vic Reeves, there was a boy called James Moir who was much the same as...
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Western Approaches
Graham HurleyA body. A policeman. Over the edge...The launch of a stunning crime series from the author of LAST FLIGHT TO STALINGRADNo one liked Jake Kinsey. A rich man, he turned up out of now...
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Lost or Found
Graham IsonA wedding ring, a missing woman, a bizarre disappearance...Brock and Poole have one of their most unusual cases to unravel'Devilishly engaging characters and authentic details of p...
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The Complete Father Brown Stories
G. K. Chesterton & Michael HurleyThe complete adventures of the wellloved clerical sleuth, collected in one brilliant volume.Shabby and lumbering, with a face like a Norfolk dumpling, Father Brown makes for an imp...
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The Peter James Collection
Peter JamesTHREE PETER JAMES TITLES IN ONE!TwilightThree muffled thuds ring from the partially filled grave of the newly wed girl.Only the verger hears them and he dismisses the noise as his ...
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Kraftwerk
Tim BarrThe future of modern music began in Dusseldorf in 1970, when an avantgarde German band, the Organisation reinvented themselves as Kraftwerk and set in motion a train of events whic...
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The Dog Park Detectives
Blake MaraMurder is never just a walk in the park . . . When friends Louise and Irina find a dead body in the local park whilst walking their dogs, they are soon drawn into the mystery of wh...
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The Haunting
Alan Titchmarsh'A perfect love story' Katie FfordeHow can the mysterious disappearance of Anne Flint and the drowning of a young girl in a chalk stream in 1816 possibly affect the life of schoo...
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A Body in the Bookshop
Helen Cox'If you like a cosy mystery, you'll love this' 5 reader reviewIt's nearly Christmas in York, but it seems the season of goodwill hasn't touched everyone... When DS Charlotte Banks ...
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Borrowed Light
Graham Hurley'There is no one writing better police procedurals today.' Daily TelegraphFour charred bodies. One killer. A race against time...DI Joe Faraday is convalescing after a serious inju...
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The Idiot
Fyodor Dostoyevsky & David McDuffInspired by an image of Christ's suffering, Dostoyevsky set out to create a protagonist with "a truly beautiful soul" and to trace the fate of such an individual as he comes into c...
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A Confession and Other Religious Writings
Leo TolstoyDescribing Tolstoy's crisis of depression and estrangement from the world, A Confession (1879) is an autobiographical work of exceptional emotional honesty. By the time he was fift...
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One Under
Graham HurleyTwo crimes, two tangles of emotions and thwarted love...From the author of LAST FLIGHT TO STALINGRADA man is chained inside a tunnel and then dismembered and scattered along the tr...
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Beyond Reach
Graham Hurley'There is no one writing better police procedurals today.' Daily TelegraphA brutal hitandrun killing opens the path to a 25yearold crime...Past midnight, a horribly mutilated body ...
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Watch Him Die
Craig RobertsonNOMINATED FOR THE McILVANNEY PRIZE 2020 FOR SCOTTISH CRIME BOOK OF THE YEAR 'Truly difficult to put down’ Daily Mail 'Highconcept plot keeps the 'tecs and the ...
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All Fall Down
M. J. ArlidgeFROM THE MIND OF THE MILLIONCOPY BESTSELLER M.J. ARLIDGE COMES THE BRAND NEW SERIAL KILLER THRILLER STARRING DETECTIVE INSPECTOR HELEN GRACE... "You have one hour to live."Those...
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Over My Dead Body
Maz Evans'Laughoutloud hilarious, moving and life affirming. How can one book be so many things? I couldn't put this fabulous, first class, five star read down.' JANICE HALLETT'Thoroughly w...
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Home at Grasmere
Dorothy Wordsworth & William WordsworthA continuous text made up of extracts from Dorothy Wordsworth's Journal and a selection of her brother's poems. Dorothy Wordsworth kept her Journal 'because I shall give William pl...
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Love Me Not
M. J. ArlidgeTHE GRIPPING DI HELEN GRACE THRILLER BY THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR M. J. ARLIDGE'Nailbiting . . . full of twists and turns' 5 READER REVIEW'The writing grabs you and pulls...
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When the Dust Settles
Lucy EasthopeWhen a plane crashes, a bomb explodes, a city floods or a pandemic begins, Lucy Easthope's phone starts to ring...THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER AND RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEKPROFILED I...
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Hayley Westenra
Darren Henley & Hayley WestenraHayley's first performance as 'Little Star' in a Christmas play was perfectly pitched, beautifully sung and enthusiastically received. She was six years old. Now, at the tender age...
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No Lovelier Death
Graham Hurley'There is no one writing better police procedurals today.' Daily TelegraphTwo murdered teenagers. Both sides of the law are looking for the killer.But who will get there first?A te...
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Dirty Little Lies
John MackenThis compelling and gripping novel by bestselling author John Macken takes the forensic thriller to the next level. Perfect for fans of Kathy Reichs, Karin Slaughter and Patricia C...
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The Order of Things
Graham HurleyThe fourth novel in the Jimmy Suttle series, from 'one of the UK's finest crime novelists' (INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY), author of LAST FLIGHT TO STALINGRAD'There is noone writing bette...