This book is unique in modern christian spiritual literature. Inspired in its form by the Canterbury Tales of the great Geoffrey Chaucer, it consists of six stories told by the passengers in the ‘Waiting Room'of a small country railway station. As the German aerpolanes flew overhead, dropping bombs and destroying the London docks, one winter night in 1940, a small group of travellers experinced an unforeseen vigil with an extraordinary conclusion. This book could be seen as a Symphony in words, themes coming and going, and only at the last lines do they all come together, and the reason of the whole is discovered. For those who search for a spiritual life in this world, which is itself the Waitng 'Room’ for all of us, this book is a ‘must.’

Bishop Paul was born in 1942 in the village of Hollesley, on the Suffolk coast. He studied at the St.Sergius Orthodox Theological Institute in Paris. Ordained a priest in 1967, he served in Russian ‘emigre’ parishes in the Paris suburbs. In 1991 he was elected by the Holy Synod of the Oecumenical Patriachate Bishop with the title of the ancient Byzantine city of Tracheia. Having served for ten years as a Bishop in the South of France, he retired to live a secluded life. He has presently published thirteen volumes of spiritual poetry.