When Clergymen Ruled the Earth, a book of my cartoons, was published by Monarch Publications in 1991.

I took myself and the family off to France in the summer of 1990 for a short holiday. In the face of overwhelming temptation (golden beaches, temperatures in the upper 80s, red wine, moules), I shut myself indoors for three days and dreamed up the 120 jokes that became the cartoons in this book.

They try to capture one of the funniest things in the world – people taking themselves too seriously. I drew on my own experience of church life. The massive, Everest-like pulpits in the Welsh valley chapels where I started preaching at 18. Strict Brethren assemblies where women were forbidden to speak but ruled behind the scenes anyway. Orthodox churches which stopped women wearing lipstick from kissing the icons.

Click the black and white images to see six of the cartoons, plus one that didn’t make it into the book.