This is a beginning, very tentative. Comments are very welcome. It will be turned into a bigger manuscript…..possibly book…. So over to you.

People have asked me where I got my love for reading, and in particular wrestling with the Scriptures from. Often the question is asked because of the working class background that I come from; indeed I remember at one interview a University Vice-Chancellor looking down through her spectacles, which were perched on the end of her nose, asked, ‘were you an unusual child, Dr Ellis?’

The Vice-Chancellor had made the assumption that working class children did not read, and here was I with a New Testament doctorate challenging her assumptions. Tim Chester makes the following point: ‘many working-class people love to read. There is a long history of self-improvement through literacy among working-class people, which finds expression in workers’ libraries and organizations like the Workers’ Education Association’.[1] Specifically within the UK, there has been, (or was), a long history of education being a means of escape from a life of relatively low-aspiration.

To answer the first question about a love for reading, you will have to come with me to Hillfoot School in Sheffield, to a reception class. A rather shy white-haired boy sat on the carpet with Joanne, Craig and Glynn and 15 others. Mrs Dahlek spoke softly, and asked what she had written on the blackboard. Only two of the class knew; I never knew that Kevin was spelt that way. I did not know it probably could be captured and put down like that I did not know that I could not read. I was after all 4. But that moment did give me a real desire to learn to decipher squiggles on a page; and my love for reading began to take shape.

The second about the love for the Bible is a little more complex. I was nurtured in the Christian faith at Parkwood Springs Primitive Chapel and then at St James and St Christopher’s Shiregreen. I am not sure at either place had a particular focus on the Bible; although having said that I do remember stories being told by Miss Lovell, and still remember the particular timbre in her voice as she told them. I also remember how deeply intertwined both Christian communities were in their local communities, from running Boys Brigades and Scout Troops, Walks of Witness (May Queen festivals combined with Pentecost) and Lunch Clubs, which provided food for the elderly and work experience for those with learning disabilities. Therefore if it is true that for most people the only Bible they encounter is the lived witness of a Christian community, then what these local expressions of faith taught was a story of inclusion, generosity, laughter and gritty determination. These sit cheek by jowl with petty power politics, child-like squabbles and a resolve to exclude people who did not quite fit. Churches in urban areas, like those in sub-urban, rural and inner city, are usually an accurate reflection of the communities that surround them. They are often people with broken lives attempting to live life differently. It is my experience that the overarching story of the Bible can provide some scaffolding to help people to do just that.

It was however at the age of 14, discovering that I was not allowed to go to a house group because I did not have ‘a proper adult faith’ that stimulated my curiosity and desire to know more about my faith. In retrospect the vicar who said I could not join in did me a favour; teenagers, then as now, are only too willing to prove people wrong.

It was through participation in youth groups at neighbouring churches, wrestling with the story of Jesus as told by Luke for A level, and two years with the London City Mission (LCM) that fuelled my desire to get to grips with the Christian Scriptures.

It was in the LCM base on Old Jamaica Road in Bermondsey that I encountered the idea of reading the Scriptures every day. It had, I think, never occurred to me before. There is a story of my arrival at LCM that is worth telling because it is, or was, illustrative of aspiration on a housing estate. I blew my ‘A’ levels the first time around. It was my fault; if you are up all might working for Mission Sheffield before you take them, then you will not usually be switched on for exams. The second time around was different: worked hard (extra timed essays, weekends spent in the research section of Sheffield City Library – this was a necessity, space was needed to learn) and was absolutely focused. In spite of this, I did not go straight to university. I did not think I was bright enough. The school was not particularly switched on, not even a handful of pupils went on to university. Hammond describes a ‘wall in the head’ for people living on estates. That was true for me; so I did not apply.

It began to be broken by the leaders of the Voluntary Evangelism Scheme. I went for two weeks, and stayed for over two years. they took a chance with a shy and insecure 19 year old, and my journeying with the Bible was about to take a dramatic turn.