YOU HAVE A MINUTE LORD? : A Sort of Prayer Book

by David Kossoff

David Kossoff's famous versions of Old and New Testament stories have made this award-winning actor a best-selling author. Much of their success lies in the easy, informal relationship with God that Kossoff gives the familiar Biblical characters.

This book, which Kossoff calls 'a sort of prayer book', has the same 'easy way with the Almighty'. The prayers ('written across a span of five years, never looked for, as they came') cover a wide range of everyday subjects, and will appeal to those who, like Kossoff, find themselves puzzled and bothered by much that goes on in today's troubled world. They are sad, funny, thoughtful and thought-provoking, and always addressed to God in the spirit of respectful familiarity, as to a friend.

Illustrated by the author, the book also includes Kossoff's 'Words For Paul', three pieces written after the tragically early death, at 25, of his younger son Paul, a brilliant guitarist in the pop world.

Genres: Nonfiction, Poetry

96 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1977

About the author

Kossoff was born in London, the youngest of three children, to poor Russian Jewish immigrant parents. In its obituary of David Kossoff, The Scotsman wrote how he was "a man of deep convictions and proud of his Jewish origins".

Kossoff started working in light entertainment on British television in the years following World War II. His best known television roles were the hen-pecked husband Alf Larkin in The Larkins, first broadcast in 1958, and a Jewish furniture maker in A Little Big Business.

He was also well known for his story-telling skills, particularly with regard to reinterpreting the Bible. His best known book, also a television series, is The Book of Witnesses (1971), in which he turned the Gospels into a series of monologues. He also retold dozens of Old Testament and Apocrypha stories in Bible Stories (1968).

Following the death in 1976 of his son Paul, guitarist with the band Free, Kossoff established the Paul Kossoff Foundation which aimed to present the realities of drug addiction to children. Kossoff spent the remainder of his life campaigning against drugs. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, he toured with a one-man stage performance about the death of his son and its effect on the family.

He died in 2005 of liver cancer at age 85. He was cremated and interred at the Golders Green Crematorium.

Obituaries:
http://www.theguardian.com/news/2005/...
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obi...
http://www.televisionheaven.co.uk/kos...

Reviews

[Leila · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very touched by David's thoughts, his wisdom, his simple and honest outlook on life. This is a little book I will pick up again and again. It isn't back on my book shelves, it is in the drawer on my PC table. It is a lovely little book.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Witty and very sad at the end (poems for Paul).