A down-to-earth book on prayer has been written by the ‘art nun’ Sr Wendy Beckett.

In ‘Sister Wendy on Prayer’, she says people complain they lack time for prayer. But she suggests trying it in a 10 minute silence ‘in the lavatory or the bath, or the car, or standing at the station, or when the baby’s just gone to sleep’. She admits in the 55 chapters – none more than four small pages long – that there are different levels of prayer. Some are in church with deep contemplation. But others are doing things like shaving, putting out the cat and reading a newspaper.

‘All life is prayer’ says the hermit nun, who is well-known to millions through her TV art programmes. She is refreshingly honest about the subject. She suggests people should not pray by rote.

The book is attractively-printed in A5 size. Some 130 pages are devoted to the subject of prayer, including its practice, and is ideally suited to being dipped into, perhaps, daily. The first 25 pages are written by TV producer David Willcock and tell Sr Wendy’s story from being educated at Oxford, teaching in South Africa, living alone in the grounds of a Carmelite monastery in Norfolk, and presenting, since 1991, TV programmes on art. Willcock tells how hard-bitten TV crews were impressed with her ‘refreshingly uncomplicated and sometimes unconventional spirituality’. She always made time in a day’s TV shooting for Mass, the high point of her day.

‘Sister Wendy on Prayer’, by Sr Wendy Beckett. Published by Continuum. £8.99.

Michael Morrissey