From pop star to priest, to media personality and bestselling novelist, the Reverend Richard Coles has enjoyed a remarkably varied career.

As a former Church of England vicar, he is no stranger to addressing a crowd in a church. But on Saturday, 8 March, at Farnham Literary Festival, he took to the stage at St Andrew’s Church for a different purpose—promoting his latest book rather than delivering a sermon.

His An Evening with… event was a sell-out, as scores of fans gathered to hear anecdotes from his fascinating life. He also reflected on the rise of the cosy crime genre—a literary phenomenon driven by authors such as Robert Thorogood, Richard Osman, and Coles himself, whose latest book, Murder at the Monastery, continues his popular Canon Clement series.

In conversation with writer Jack Jewers, Coles recounted his journey from middle-class life in the Northamptonshire town of Kettering to becoming a key figure in the 1980s pop scene.

As a multi-instrumentalist, he joined Bronski Beat after being invited by singer Jimmy Somerville, but when the band split—just before a planned tour supporting Madonna—the pair formed The Communards. Their chart-topping hit Don’t Leave Me This Way catapulted Coles into an unlikely role as a pop star.

However, it was the devastating impact of the AIDS epidemic, which claimed the lives of many of his friends, that set him on the path to the priesthood.

“The 1980s, for a gay man in a big city, it was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” he said, recalling how it was an era when, just as society’s prejudice against homosexuality began to ease, HIV arrived.

The confrontation with mortality, he explained, led him to reassess his life and, as the world wars had impelled many towards religion, so too did the AIDS crisis for Coles.

“I went to church one morning, walking through the door reluctantly as a sceptic and an outsider, and came out as a participant,” he said.

Coles also reflected on his television appearances, including successful stints on I'm A Celebrity, Christmas MasterChef, and Celebrity Mastermind. However, his time on Strictly Come Dancing was less triumphant—his Paso Doble was infamously judged "not only the lowest-scored in the history of the show but also the lowest-scored Paso Doble in any version of the show worldwide”.

As well as sharing hilarious anecdotes—such as mistakenly failing to recognise the King of Norway—Coles entertained the audience with tales from his extraordinary life, blending wit, warmth, and self-deprecating humour.

He ended the show on a reflective note, addressing the ongoing issues of homophobia and intolerance both within religious organisations and society as a whole.

“There’s a lot wrong with the world, and I’m very conscious that we’ve perhaps been complacent,” he said.

“I’ve lived in a world where people got richer, we’ve been stable, secure and prosperous, and mostly healthy, and I’ve started to think that maybe that’s just normal, when it’s not.

“Perhaps what’s happening at the moment is an adjustment to a world that’s very divided, it’s full of centrifugal forces – put your head into the hellscape of social media and you’ll soon find that out.

“So it’s good to be woken up from our slumber of complacency – and that’s my positive take on it.”