A LOVE of books is a strong thread running through the Rev Roddie McLeod's life.

Now, at nearly 70, he is taking a vast library out of his Shipton Bellinger vicarage into retirement in West Sussex.

Without daily church duties his days will, to begin with, include the manufacture of many bookshelves - an art that he has had to develop as his books have increased in number.

His library is eclectic, reflecting in many instances his career. From theology to geography and the study of primitive peoples, from military matters to history and education - the volumes are stacked on his shelves.

And the congregation of St Peter's Church has benefited from this literary background during the 17 years that Mr McLeod has been in the village.

From his Oxford University days in the 1950s, he has regularly been granted a licence as a book agent. Such a licence, his last, operates from the church. That has meant St Peter's contains a wide-range of books, something not likely to be repeated in many village churches.

He says it will be a 'great wrench' to leave Shipton Bellinger early next year.

His successor is the Rev Brian Tims who will move into the vicarage hopefully before Easter with his wife, Christine. Mr Tims retired as a solicitor after 40 years to train for the Church of England.