Robert Keable in his 1919 book about the Great War, Standing By: Wartime Reflections in France
and Flanders, wrote of his hopes for the chaplains after the war. ”It is inconceivable that they will not
make an upheaval; if they do not it will be one of the central disappointments of my life.”
Many of the chaplains did make significant contributions to the post war church and society, but
perhaps one who was most famous, possibly notorious, was Keable himself, whose post war life …

Written by his grandson, and meticulously researched, this biography of largely forgotten author Robert Keable is a wonderfully enlightening and absorbing account of an unconventional and unusual man and writer. His most notorious and controversial novel Simon Called Peter (also definitely worth reading) became a huge international best-seller and a real succès de scandale. Simon Keable-Elliot has done a stellar job in recounting his grandfather’s life and also provides intelligent…

My favorite thing about this thoroughly researched book was its title; I'd never heard of its subject before, author Simon Keable-Elliott's grandfather Robert Keable and his most famous book, Simon Called Peter. Simon Called Peter was about an English military chaplain's struggles with his religion, work, marriage, and maintaining loyalty to any of them. Its reputation due to bits of unprecedented naughtiness earned it plenty of acclaim and attention, but serious reviewers pointed o…