English cowboy, tramp, author, adulterer, social reformer, preacher. This lovingly written, but brutally honest, biography by the subject's grandson belongs to an unusual genre - the spiritual thriller.

Stanley James, as an 1890s hippy in the Canadian West, was a cowhand, shepherd, navvy, hobo and reporter, soldier in the Spanish-American war, poet and actor. Ever the searcher after truth, he returned to his native England, married and became a Nonconformist minister who both charmed and alienated his Walthamstow congregation with his socialism, pacifism and feminism. In 1923 he converted and turned himself into a leading Catholic commentator with nine books to his name. Widely respected for his knowledge, passion and insight, he worked alongside Bertrand Russell counted G.K. Chesterton a friend and received an obituary in The Times.

Yet the discovery of hundreds of secret letters and diaries of three women shattered the image. These documents - many quoted in this account - show in often explicit detail that, as a husband and father of seven (including the author's mother), he had love affairs with members of his congregation. Just how much did his family know?

Those who love a charismatic maverick, students of twentieth century radicalism and questioning Christians generally will be richly entertained by this tale, described by Irish author Patrick Quigley as 'easily one of the best biographies I have ever read'.