by Paul Matheson

When writing about different renditions of the same songs, I am often reminded of The Singer Not the Song, a 1953 novel by Audrey Erskine Lindop, made into a film in 1961 starring John Mills and Dirk Bogarde. It tells the story of Father Michael Keogh, sent by Rome to Quantana, a remote Mexican town under the control of a ruthless, church-hating bandit, Anacleto Komachi. The departing priest Father Gomez tells Keogh that Anacleto was raised to hate religion because of its association with a corrupt government. Father Keogh takes a different approach from his predecessor. He revives church life, grows the congregation, preaches in the town centre, and survives repeated assassination attempts.