Maureen Lipman

One of the best-kept religious secrets has been the revolution that has been quietly taking place within Judaism over the last two decades, as it has sought to grapple with contemporary issues. These include mixed-faith marriages, gay relationships, women's empowerment, declining numbers, atheism and being trans. It has involved a willingness to abandon biblical laws that conflict with modern values. Most ground-breaking of all, it has meant re-defining what it means to be Jewish in the 21st century.Inclusive Judaism not only uncovers this religion revolution, but presents a challenge to all people of faith on how best to marry tradition and modernity. The book also reflects the soul-searching that has prompted rabbis to chart a new course, both out of principle and as a practical way of rescuing British Jewry from possible collapse if it did not adapt to the new social trends that affect us all.

Foreword by Maureen Lipman Having produced a new Shakespearean canon in his previous collection of plays Codpieces, Perry Pontac turns his attention to other great names in European culture.The Three Seagulls is a Chekhovian comedy with representative characters drawn from each of Chekhov’s major plays, as well as a selection of his plot-lines. The Lunchtime of the Gods is Wagner’s Ring recycled into a thirty-minute play telling the entire story,plus several jokes not in the original. And in The Bards of Bromley,the first meeting of a writers’ workshop is attended by a group of unusually promising authors: William Wordsworth, George Eliot, August Strindberg, A A Milne and Johan Wolfgang von Goethe.

The hilarious new book from the magnificent Maureen Lipman, one of Britain's most recognisable comic talents