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A Smile on the Face of God: Life of Philip Ilott
A Smile on the Face of Life of Philip Ilott Plass, Adrian
222 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1990
About the author
Adrian Plass
138 books105 followersAdrian Plass is a writer and speaker who has produced over thirty books in the last twenty years. The best known of these is probably The Sacred Diary of Adrian Plass, a gentle satire on the modern church, which has sold hundreds of thousands of copies worldwide. This and other books have travelled to other countries and are translated into a number of foreign languages. Other books include biography, novels, short stories, a fictionalised account of the author's experiences as a residential child care worker, and collections of poems and sketches. A bemused Anglican, Adrian lives with his wife and daughter in a small market town near the Sussex South Downs.
Adrian has been in demand as a speaker in venues as varied as prisons, schools, churches, festivals, literary dinners and theatrical settings. His work also includes contribution to national and local radio and television. Live presentations combine humour, poetry, and story telling, largely revolving around his own inadequacies and struggles as a Christian and a human being.
In recent years Adrian has been joined by his wife Bridget in presenting a more varied and dramatic style of performance. Adrian and Bridget met at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and have found particular satisfaction in being allowed to ‘do a bit of acting’. They have also been privileged to work alongside World Vision on several occasions, visiting Bangladesh and Zambia, writing two books and touring both in the UK and abroad with the aim of encouraging people to take up child sponsorship
Their work now takes them as far away as Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Africa, while trips to Europe have introduced the added dimension of speaking through interpreters. Not easy when you're trying to be funny!
Adrian's latest books include ‘Jesus Safe Tender and Extreme‘, published by Zondervan, ‘Blind Spots in the Bible’, published by BRF, and most recent of all ‘Bacon Sandwiches and Salvation’ published by Authentic Media. He and Bridget have also collaborated with friends in Canada to produce a CD of his favourite sketches from the last 20 years called ‘Preaching to the Converted’ while ‘A Touch of Plass’, CTA’s documentary video, is now out on DVD.
2008 began with a visit to Bolivia for Bridget and Adrian in collaboration with the charity Toybox to look at projects involving street children. Later on there will be a DVD, a book and a number of presentations promoting their work.
Adrian's central motivation continues to be his love for Jesus, although some may feel he expresses it rather eccentrically. His passion is to communicate the need for reality in faith, and a truth that he learned during a difficult stage in his life: "God is nice and he likes me..." Some have described his work as being ‘one long confessional’. They may well be right!
Adrian has been in demand as a speaker in venues as varied as prisons, schools, churches, festivals, literary dinners and theatrical settings. His work also includes contribution to national and local radio and television. Live presentations combine humour, poetry, and story telling, largely revolving around his own inadequacies and struggles as a Christian and a human being.
In recent years Adrian has been joined by his wife Bridget in presenting a more varied and dramatic style of performance. Adrian and Bridget met at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and have found particular satisfaction in being allowed to ‘do a bit of acting’. They have also been privileged to work alongside World Vision on several occasions, visiting Bangladesh and Zambia, writing two books and touring both in the UK and abroad with the aim of encouraging people to take up child sponsorship
Their work now takes them as far away as Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Africa, while trips to Europe have introduced the added dimension of speaking through interpreters. Not easy when you're trying to be funny!
Adrian's latest books include ‘Jesus Safe Tender and Extreme‘, published by Zondervan, ‘Blind Spots in the Bible’, published by BRF, and most recent of all ‘Bacon Sandwiches and Salvation’ published by Authentic Media. He and Bridget have also collaborated with friends in Canada to produce a CD of his favourite sketches from the last 20 years called ‘Preaching to the Converted’ while ‘A Touch of Plass’, CTA’s documentary video, is now out on DVD.
2008 began with a visit to Bolivia for Bridget and Adrian in collaboration with the charity Toybox to look at projects involving street children. Later on there will be a DVD, a book and a number of presentations promoting their work.
Adrian's central motivation continues to be his love for Jesus, although some may feel he expresses it rather eccentrically. His passion is to communicate the need for reality in faith, and a truth that he learned during a difficult stage in his life: "God is nice and he likes me..." Some have described his work as being ‘one long confessional’. They may well be right!
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
January 28, 2018
This is a review I have found so hard to write...
Mother's bed each night while she sexually abused him. He endured all sorts of cruel punishment on
The author has written an unusual and harrowing biography about his lifelong friend Philip Ilott a man who as a very young child suffered terribly due to the heartrending emotional, physical and sexual abuse done to him by his Mother while his Father was at war. He was made to sleep in his a daily basis such as being locked in the under the stairs cupboard in the dark and he had to spend
long hours daily in the garden shed.
When his Father came home from the war he hoped his suffering would end but the only relief for him was that at last he was able to sleep in his own bed. There were constant rows between his parents and Philip was given no protection by his Father.
Adrian Plass has done a great job in writing this moving biography about the complex life of his friend who though so damaged internally through such a lack of love from someone he longed to have love from - his Mother - has never given up on life. In her eyes he had committed an unforgivable offence in being born a male. I did sense how often he struggled with how to give love himself to others though he didn't seem to realise this. God truly blessed him with his wife Margaret who had enough love and common sense for the both of them.
When he was old enough he was recruited into the army to do his National Service where he experienced more suffering from a bullying CSM. During this time he became a Christian after a personal spiritual encounter. He never wavered from his conversion into Christianity.
All through his life Philip remained emotionally damaged by this profound lack of love from his Mother. As a young man he lived with his Granny who did love him and provided a much needed He eventually married Margaret and his wife was a rock in his life. He remained in the deepest relationship with God through all his serious physical problems and in time was in a wheel chair with an incurable ongoing illness, but his whole life continued to be all about his need to bring "Jesus" and his healing of people and their memories as he saw it. He ended in his later life by being able to be open to the whole Evangelical healing for himself too as God revealed his Philip's own need of his hurtful memories from his past.
home. The habitual criticism of everything in his life by his Mother caused him much personal suffering for he felt truly inferior but he never gave up on his love of "Jesus" and eventually achieved his dream of become a priest. The cruel heartless treatment by his Mother when he was a young boy and how it continued affected his personality through all of his future life and he struggled so much because of it. His health throughout his priesthood was an ongoing issue too.
My heart went out to him when initially he couldn't face anything at all to do with Mary, the all loving Mother of God which had so much to do with the relationship or the lack of it with his own dominant Mother and his Father's inability to stand up for him. He walked out of a sermon by another priest because of this. This touched me deeply for I had issues with my own extremely dominant Mother who so wanted a boy and had his name chosen, but instead she had me. I tried so hard to please her but she always, in so many ways made it clear how much she wanted a boy and how much I disappointed her.
In one incident in Philip's earlier life he actually found the strength to defy his Mother and assert his determination to attend a Christian event. She told him that if he went, he needn't come back. When he returned he found all the doors locked and a suitcase thrown out in front of the door. He went to live with his Granny.
He eventually married Margaret and his wife was a rock in his life. He remained in the deepest relationship with God through all his serious physical problems and in time was in a wheel chair with an incurable ongoing illness, but his whole life continued to be all about his need to bring the physical healing of people and their memories through "Jesus". In his later life he was finally able to be open to the whole Evangelical healing for himself too as God revealed Philip's own need of his crippling hurtful memories from the past.
This is such a dense, detailed and intimate book in that Philip has allowed his friend the author Adrian Plass to share with readers, all that went on in the intimate depths of his very soul. The descriptions of his struggles, his mistakes and the intense emotional and physical pain going on in his damaged heart, mind and soul is so traumatic to truly read.. It requires much empathy and focus as it is so complex and heartbreaking to read. I did wonder at the end of this book just why his Mother was as she was and what the reasons were for her own inability to give love.
This is not a book for everyone but even at the basic level of a study in human relationships it is well worth a read.
Mother's bed each night while she sexually abused him. He endured all sorts of cruel punishment on
The author has written an unusual and harrowing biography about his lifelong friend Philip Ilott a man who as a very young child suffered terribly due to the heartrending emotional, physical and sexual abuse done to him by his Mother while his Father was at war. He was made to sleep in his a daily basis such as being locked in the under the stairs cupboard in the dark and he had to spend
long hours daily in the garden shed.
When his Father came home from the war he hoped his suffering would end but the only relief for him was that at last he was able to sleep in his own bed. There were constant rows between his parents and Philip was given no protection by his Father.
Adrian Plass has done a great job in writing this moving biography about the complex life of his friend who though so damaged internally through such a lack of love from someone he longed to have love from - his Mother - has never given up on life. In her eyes he had committed an unforgivable offence in being born a male. I did sense how often he struggled with how to give love himself to others though he didn't seem to realise this. God truly blessed him with his wife Margaret who had enough love and common sense for the both of them.
When he was old enough he was recruited into the army to do his National Service where he experienced more suffering from a bullying CSM. During this time he became a Christian after a personal spiritual encounter. He never wavered from his conversion into Christianity.
All through his life Philip remained emotionally damaged by this profound lack of love from his Mother. As a young man he lived with his Granny who did love him and provided a much needed He eventually married Margaret and his wife was a rock in his life. He remained in the deepest relationship with God through all his serious physical problems and in time was in a wheel chair with an incurable ongoing illness, but his whole life continued to be all about his need to bring "Jesus" and his healing of people and their memories as he saw it. He ended in his later life by being able to be open to the whole Evangelical healing for himself too as God revealed his Philip's own need of his hurtful memories from his past.
home. The habitual criticism of everything in his life by his Mother caused him much personal suffering for he felt truly inferior but he never gave up on his love of "Jesus" and eventually achieved his dream of become a priest. The cruel heartless treatment by his Mother when he was a young boy and how it continued affected his personality through all of his future life and he struggled so much because of it. His health throughout his priesthood was an ongoing issue too.
My heart went out to him when initially he couldn't face anything at all to do with Mary, the all loving Mother of God which had so much to do with the relationship or the lack of it with his own dominant Mother and his Father's inability to stand up for him. He walked out of a sermon by another priest because of this. This touched me deeply for I had issues with my own extremely dominant Mother who so wanted a boy and had his name chosen, but instead she had me. I tried so hard to please her but she always, in so many ways made it clear how much she wanted a boy and how much I disappointed her.
In one incident in Philip's earlier life he actually found the strength to defy his Mother and assert his determination to attend a Christian event. She told him that if he went, he needn't come back. When he returned he found all the doors locked and a suitcase thrown out in front of the door. He went to live with his Granny.
He eventually married Margaret and his wife was a rock in his life. He remained in the deepest relationship with God through all his serious physical problems and in time was in a wheel chair with an incurable ongoing illness, but his whole life continued to be all about his need to bring the physical healing of people and their memories through "Jesus". In his later life he was finally able to be open to the whole Evangelical healing for himself too as God revealed Philip's own need of his crippling hurtful memories from the past.
This is such a dense, detailed and intimate book in that Philip has allowed his friend the author Adrian Plass to share with readers, all that went on in the intimate depths of his very soul. The descriptions of his struggles, his mistakes and the intense emotional and physical pain going on in his damaged heart, mind and soul is so traumatic to truly read.. It requires much empathy and focus as it is so complex and heartbreaking to read. I did wonder at the end of this book just why his Mother was as she was and what the reasons were for her own inability to give love.
This is not a book for everyone but even at the basic level of a study in human relationships it is well worth a read.
June 16, 2016
Three and a half stars. Adrian Plass's biography of Reverend Philip Ilott, an Anglo-Catholic-Charismatic minister, is definitely worth reading. It is not a light read, with Philip's abused childhood forming a base for a life filled with emotional conflicts, severe illnesses and dramatic healings. The style is a bit dated, cosy and often wordy, but I think this is Plass's way of writing in Philip's voice. The spiritual content ranges from inspiring to puzzling - well, for me it did. The ending was a delight!
September 24, 2025
The warm and sensitive biography of Philip Ilott. He was neglected, unwanted and abused by his mother, yet dearly loved by his grandmother.
The book charts his life with all its struggles, as Philip longs for his mother's approval. Despite everything he becomes a priest in the Anglican church, most comfortable as a high Anglo-Catholic. Health issues abound, and he makes plenty of mistakes as he gradually finds healing from his early memories.
It's brilliantly written, without being preachy in any way. It's often very moving, too. I've read it at least three times now, and love it every time. Highly recommended.
Latest longer review: https://suesbookreviews.blogspot.com/...
The book charts his life with all its struggles, as Philip longs for his mother's approval. Despite everything he becomes a priest in the Anglican church, most comfortable as a high Anglo-Catholic. Health issues abound, and he makes plenty of mistakes as he gradually finds healing from his early memories.
It's brilliantly written, without being preachy in any way. It's often very moving, too. I've read it at least three times now, and love it every time. Highly recommended.
Latest longer review: https://suesbookreviews.blogspot.com/...
August 6, 2015
Not what you might expect, given the Title. Well worth a read by Christians of any Affiliation, describing the struggles, sufferings and also Triumphs of one Persons Christian Journey.
October 3, 2019
Definitely not a page turner but this book is a long look at an ordinary man who came from deprived and depraved origins. It is the story of God’s working in redemptive ways to shine His glory through this life. Phillip is a real person, a likeable character with all the warts, blemishes and ultimate glow that one might expect in a sinner saved by grace.
April 30, 2012
Wonderful biography.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews