ANDREW O'HAGAN Be Near Me ***

I admired this book more than I liked it - probably because the characters are hard to like.

It's about a cultured Catholic priest in his 50s in a working class parish in Scotland. He's arrogant, bored and lazy. To relieve the boredom and to enjoy living life on the edge he allows himself to become involved with two 15-year olds, Mark and Lisa. It's a sort of Shakespearean tragedy waiting to happen. Sure enough after a late night drink and drugs spree he kisses Mark and is convicted of sexual assault.

There are some interesting and touching bits - notably his friendship with his housekeeper, who is suffering from cancer, and the way it looks at 'sexual abuse' from the perpetrator's angle - but it won't go down as one of my favourite books.