Kel Richard’s distinctively Strine take on the Jesus story is reaching so many Australians, he’s written a new book retelling even more of the Bible.
Kel’s More Aussie Bible was launched by the Bible Society NSW at a BBQ outside St Andrew’s Cathedral in Sydney yesterday.
More Aussie Bible is a follow up to the successful The Aussie Bible (Well, bits of it anyway!) released in August 2003 which has now sold over 100,000 copies in Australia.
The first installment was a retelling of the gospel narrative.
This second book, gives a fuller picture of the Bible’s story retelling Genesis, some of the Bible’s poetry and wisdom, John’s Gospel and John’s first letter.
"We were blown away with the success of the The Aussie Bible," says Bible Society NSW CEO, Daniel Willis.
"We had lots of requests for another volume and Kel has come up with another winner," he said.
In explaining where the original idea came from, author Kel Richards says, "It all began with an English school teacher named Mike Coles. Working in the East End of London, he found that most of his pupils didn't have a clue what many Bible passages are about. So he began re-telling some of the stories of the Bible in the street language of the East End " Cockney rhyming slang."
"The result was a book called The Bible in Cockney (Well, bits of it anyway). When I came across this little book I was delighted by the Cockney lingo " but also struck by the fact that Aussie is a distinctive branch of English every bit as colourful as Cockney. This thought inspired me to do for Aussies what Mike Coles had done for Cockneys. The result was The Aussie Bible (Well, bits of it anyway)," says Kel.
"The success of the first volume was due to Kel's ability to re-tell the story of Jesus in a way that anyone could understand," says Daniel Willis.
"We have found that lots of people are put off by their perception of the language of the Bible " Kel's retelling using Aussie vernacular has meant that hundreds of people have now understood the Bible's message " that God loves them," he said.
Photos courtesy Ramon Williams/Worldwide Photos
