The Trials of Jessica Lovegood – new book by Rev. Martine Oborne

Rev. Martine Oborne

A review, and interview with the author

Chiswick vicar Martine Oborne is launching a new novel at this year’s Chiswick Book Festival.

The Trials of Jessica Lovegood, about what it is like to be a female priest in the Church of England, is not Martine’s first book.

The vicar of St Michael’s Church, Elmwood Road, Chiswick, published three novels in the early 2000s – Mother Love, about juggling a full-time career in the City with having children, (she has five), Baby Love, about a woman who struggled to conceive, and Getting Even, about sibling rivalry, but it is a while since she has published anything.

She spoke to us about what had prompted her to write her latest novel.

“I wanted to write a story about the experience of being a female vicar within the Church, but I wanted it to be a proper story”, she told The Chiswick Calendar.

“It is a gentle and moving story about what life is like working in an ordinary parish”.

It is odd reading a book by someone you know. I can hear Martine’s voice, her tone, her exasperation as she describes the bishop who is her central character’s boss, who does not believe women should be priests.

He is a lonely man who’s obsessed with order, routine and his cherry-head tortoise, and he and Jess loathe each other with a passion.

There is an undertone of serious frustration to the book. Martine does not suffer fools gladly and neither does her character Jessica.

“The London diocese is extremely conservative on women and on LGBT people”, she told me.

“About 20% churches in London restrict women’s roles, about 80 out of 400 churches. They do it very quietly”.

Martine is the chair of Women and the Church (WATCH) and earlier this year she publicly supported a petition to try and persuade the Church of England against appointing a new bishop in London who does not approve of the ordination of women.

READ ALSO: Chiswick vicar demands that the next Bishop of London accepts female clergy

Despite the underlying seriousness, The Trials of Jessica Lovegood is a light and easy read.

“I wanted to do it with a light touch because I do bash the Church quite a bit, so this has a gentle tone; it’s funny, moving and accessible to anyone”, she told me.

The multi-talented author has also illustrated her new book with her own pen and ink drawings of the key characters.

I was prepared not to like this book because I don’t believe in miracles, and it is predicated on the idea that Jessica has the gift of healing – she can heal ‘anything from bunions to tumours’, by saying a prayer over someone.

But I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. Martine writes about the maelstrom of a vicar’s life, running a cafe where people can drop in and contribute to a communal jigsaw, and visiting people in hospital with an insider’s knowledge based on many years of dispensing concern and support over tea and lemon drizzle cake.

Jess discovers her superpower in the wake of her husband’s death from cancer in his forties. As a vicar, death and dying and dealing with grief is all very familiar territory, so Martine writes about it very convincingly and quite matter-of-factly.

She wears the theology lightly. Jess has been saying prayers for people throughout her ministry but never actually expects them to work. Their sudden efficacy is nothing short of miraculous and she feels ‘seriously weird’.

In scenes reminiscent of The Life of Brian the ailing public pursues her, alienating her daughter Emme, who can’t understand why, if she can heal people through the power of prayer, Jess had been unable to cure her father.

That must be the most difficult conversation to have in real life as a vicar, especially with your own children – if God is so great why do they permit such cruelty and suffering? I have never heard a particularly convincing answer to this, and Martine does not offer one here.

The core of the book is the growing rift between Jess and her daughter as her fame as a healer spreads, and her obsessive-compulsive boss, the bishop, seeks to use it for his own career enhancement.

The story is told from each of their three perspectives in turn. There is a touch of the Tom Sharpe to the ludicrousness of it all and the cartoon nature of some of the characters. Tom Sharpe’s father was a minister. Maybe there’s something about spending too much time around religious establishments which encourages parody and caricature.

I somehow wasn’t expecting The Trials of Jessica Lovegood to be satirical, but that is the only way I can describe the way in which Martine lampoons the effect Jess’s miraculous healing power has on the church establishment and in turn on MI6 and the government.

I was itching to know whether the bishop was based on a particular bishop she knows – she says not – or whether he is an amalgam of all the embittered male clergy she has encountered who oppose the ordination of women and seek to restrict their influence in the Church.

“People will make comparisons with certain bishops, but I have been fairly careful”.

If there is an underlying message to the book, it is about the power of friendship, says Martine.

“There are no answers as to why there is suffering in the world, and no fixes. But there is friendship. There are people around you who will help you get through tough times”.

Local Chiswick authors taking part in this year’s Local Authors Showcase

Martine will be one of 20 authors presenting their new work at the Chiswick Book Festival Local Authors Showcase on Wednesday 9 September in the Boston Room of George IV.

READ ALSO: Lineup of authors announced for Chiswick Book Festival 2026 Local Authors Showcase

The Trials of Jessica Lovegood will be available from Waterstones in Chiswick, and you can also buy it online from Amazon.

The Trials of Jessica Lovegood