Meet Richard Coles, the atheist's favourite vicar

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Pop star turned broadcaster - and priest - Richard Coles tells Sally Saunders about sex, drugs and rock’n’roll



Raising eyebrows: Rev Richard Coles’s Damascene conversion followed a troubled time in the 1980s (Photo: David Rose)

By Sally Saunders
3:38PM BST 20 Oct 2014

The Reverend Richard Coles’s diary must look a bit different from that of most vicars in the shires. On the day we meet, it reads something like this: 10am: junior school harvest festival. 2pm: interview and photo shoot. 8pm: book launch party at the Ministry of Sound in London.

But then, Rev Coles is not like most clergy.

His claims to fame are fast becoming too numerous to mention: Eighties pop star (in The Communards); long-time radio broadcaster; the inspiration for the BBC sitcom Rev; part of the gay group portrayed in the latest Brit-hit Pride; popular guest on the likes of QI and Have I Got News for You… the list, it seems, is endless. The best description is his own: “ 'The atheist’s favourite vicar’, although I don’t know what that really says about me,” he says darkly.

I am meeting Rev Coles in his “man shed” in the garden to discuss his autobiography, Fathomless Riches, or How I Went from Pop to Pulpit, which was released this week.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/lifestyle/11174830/Meet-Richard-Coles-the-atheists-favourite-vicar.html

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1. What a character!

"Atheists favorite vicar" is the title he gives himself and I'm not sure what that even means, but he is certainly interesting.