Bruce Marshall’s comic novel follows a Scottish Catholic priest, Father Thomas Smith, from 1908 until his death in 1942.

In the extract below set in 1910, a cinema is built in the city and Father Smith, Monsignor O’Duffy and Father Bonnyboat visit to see for themselves just how wicked and corrupting this new-fangled invention might be. (It feels like a scene that could almost have come out of an episode of Father Ted).  With declining attendance at church, Monsignor O’Duffy has already thundered from the pulpit: ‘It’s no by sitting in red plush armchairs watching a lot of silly gowks sauntering and daundering about a lot of helter-skeltering moving picture post cards that any of ye’ll ever see the bonny Blessed Virgin Mary face to face in the kingdom of heaven.’

The cinema, run by Paolo Sarno, is the first to open in town and has been converted from an old bus stables next to his ice-cream shop.

Lieutenant-Colonel Claude Cunningham Bruce Marshall, known as Bruce Marshall was a prolific Scottish writer who wrote fiction and non-fiction books on a wide range of topics and genres. His first book, A Thief in the Night came out in 1918, His last, An Account of Capers was published posthumously in 1988.