5 Questions for Stephen Cottrell

December 10, 2018 Snehal Chavan

Stephen Cottrell, author of The Sleepy Shepherd, chats with us about books, writing, and his plans for 2019.  

1. Tell us about your favourite books to read with your children.

When my children were younger, I loved reading to them. It was one of the great joys of parenthood. It started with simple stories and nursery rhymes, the kind of books that have big colourful pictures and not too many words, but soon progressed via the wonderful Mr Men, to all sorts of stories and poems. I particularly remember the titles of books such as The Big Red Barn and the Sad Story of Veronica and of course the Tiger Who Came to Tea, but sadly, I can’t recall the names of the authors. However, speaking as one who writes stories for children I would rather the story itself was remembered rather than my name. Horrid Henry, The Secret Seven, and later Narnia and the Hobbit all featured on the bedtime reading list, though I think my wife read more of these than me. As I look back, that is now a small regret. But I also made up stories for my children. That is something I miss and hope maybe to reclaim if I become a grandparent one day.

2. What was your favourite book when you were little?

My favourite book in childhood was The Boy Next Door by Enid Blyton. I seem to remember one summer I read it three or four times over. I did read it again to my children and I enjoyed it just as much.

3. Why was it important to you to write a Christmas story?

I didn’t set out to write a Christmas story. The story began as a children’s talk for a Christmas service. It was written out of necessity rather than desire. But once the story came to me I thought I was on to something. In fact, it almost felt as if I had been given the story or had read it somewhere else and simply forgotten the source. It felt to me like it was one of those stories that have been told down the centuries and that I hadn’t actually written it myself at all, I will simply retelling it. Most preachers at Christmas struggle with knowing how emphasise that the child born in the manger grows up to be the man on the cross. What I like about the story is that it is a Christmas story which ends at Easter and seems to do it in a way that is natural and effortless. And so even as I write this I’m left feeling it isn’t really my story but something I have been given to share.

4. What are some Christmas traditions you have with your family?

Our family Christmases are, of course, dominated by the fact that I am a working minister of the gospel with lots of church services to take. However, despite all this I am still the one who cooks the Christmas dinner and we still have Christmas dinner on Christmas day (unlike many clergy families who wait till Boxing Day) even if it means we don’t sit down to eat till late afternoon. But Christmas is a feast, and I want to be feasting on Christmas day with my family around me. My favourite bit of Christmas is in the small hours of the night when I return from midnight mass, make myself a cup of tea and usually by that time feeling wide awake, sit and read for half an hour, perhaps the prologue from St John’s Gospel or some poetry on the themes of Christmas. On Christmas morning we still open presents in stockings before we go to church. When the children were little we had a family tradition where the children would follow a trail of Smarties from the stocking at the end of the bed to the place in the house where other presents were hidden. We told them that Father Christmas had a hole in his sack and that the Smarties fell out so you could tell where he had been around the house. This was a tradition I inherited from my own childhood and I believe is something my grandfather invented. I remember at school being quite shocked to discover other children didn’t have Smartie trails in their homes at Christmas!

5. What do you look forward to most in 2019? 

There is nothing in particular that I look forward to in 2019, and I’m sure I felt the same way about 2018, 2017 and all the years that have passed. I don’t tend to be someone who looks too far ahead. Of course there will be joys and excitements awaiting me. I am privileged in my position as a bishop in the Church of England to travel around the Anglican communion and I know in 2019 I will be visiting Hong Kong for an international gathering of Anglican Christians and also, probably, be doing some teaching about mission in New Zealand. These will both be exciting trips. But I think most of all I look forward to the simple joys doing what I can to live out my vocation well, to try to make the world a better place, that is one that better reflects the values of God, and being at peace with myself, my family, my colleagues, and even the Earth itself. Each day, Christians pray ‘give us today our daily bread.’ This means help me to learn what is enough and then to be satisfied with it. I believe I would be happier person and the world would be a better place if we were able to live out the words we pray.