The Bible in Cockney: Well Bits of it, Anyway.... [Paperback]

A rookery nook that puts the Bible into rhyming slang? That's The Bible in Cockney by Mike Coles. I've heard of speaking in tongues, but rabbit and porking in Cockney? It can't be Irish stew...

It is. Mike Coles is head of RE at a secondary school in Stepney, London. When he moved there 15 years ago, he fell in love with rhyming slang and spiced up his lessons by rewriting parts of the Bible, like a missionary of yore, in the native lingo. The saucepans (saucepan lids--kids) apparently loved it.

Here, he retells nine stories from the Old Testament, and translates Mark's Gospel verse by verse. He ends with the Lord's Prayer-"the prayer that Jesus taught 'is chinas"--which could leave traditionalists writhing in their pews: "You're the Boss, God, and will be for ever, innit?"

As the Archbishop of Canterbury suggests in his foreword, Coles takes the Bible "out of the formal church setting and puts it back into the marketplace, into the streets, where it originally took place." And he is right: beyond being fun, this book recaptures the colloquial nature of the exchanges between Jesus and his disciples, and unleashes some of the power of the oral tradition through which many Old Testament passages were originally passed on.

Readers will either love it or hate it--it takes lemon and lime even to adjust to the headings (such as "Jesus heals some geezer" and "Jesus ain't dead no more")--but this is much more than a novelty project. Go on, I dare you--take a butcher's hook. --Brian Draper

'It certainly is a good laugh while imparting the essential message of the Bible.' Reverend Stan in The Badge, the London cab drivers' newspaper

This is one of those 'must have' books.You should also make sure your school has a copy for use in RE lessons and assemblies. Would you Adam and Eve it? Read how Jesus feeds five thousand geezers with just five loaves of Uncle Fred and two Lillian Gish. Or how Noah built a bloomin' massive nanny. Then there's always the story of David and that massive geezer Goliath, or the time when Simon's finger and thumb-in-law was Tom and Dick in Uncle Ned and Jesus healed her... A very down-to-earth 'translation' that brings Scripture out of the pulpit and back onto the streets. Author Mike Coles is Head of Religious Education at Sir John Cass's Church of England Secondary School in Stepney, East London. He hated RE when he was at school, and vowed that he would never make the children suffer as he had to! When he moved to the East End nearly 15 years ago, he immediately fell in love with Cockney rhyming slang and started to use it in his lessons. The children loved it, he decided to write down some of his stories and - well, here they are. Mike's aim is for people to enjoy reading the Bible stories in this very down-to-earth version, and to help God's word reach out to those who wouldn't normally read the Bible but who may pick up a copy of this book. 'Puts the energy and passion back into the stories' The Archbishop of Canterbury.

Mike Coles is Head of RE at Sir John Cass Church of England Secondary School, Stepney, East London. He has written five other books for BRF: The Bible in Cockney (2001), More Bible in Cockney (2002), So You Think You're A New Testament Writer (2004) and God's Reality Show (2005) and Dear Bible, I have a problem (2005).