The Towers of Trebizond (1956), by Rose Macauley

I don’t want to put anyone off, but I think that readers will miss some of the humour in The Towers of Trebizond if they don’t have enough background knowledge.  Let me try to explain, with the help of Wikipedia (lightly edited as usual to remove unnecessary links).

Dame Emilie Rose Macaulay, DBE (1 August 1881 – 30 October 1958) was an English writer, most noted for her award-winning novel The Towers of Trebizond, about a small Anglo-Catholic group crossing Turkey by camel. The story is seen as a spiritual autobiography, reflecting her own changing and conflicting beliefs.

Well, yes it is, but that description (apart from the camel) makes it sound earnest and boring.  The truth is that most of the time Macaulay is poking fun at religion in general and at hers in particular.  It is often laugh-out-loud funny, but as I can see from reviews at Goodreads not…