Vaughan Grylls Home

Work ⟩1960s ⟩The Drunken Clergyman 1967

About the Work

This two feet high fibreglass sculpture, is half filled with an appropriate liquid so that it makes slurping noises when you push it.

Here is where the idea started:
One day in 1967 I was hitchhiking home to Nottinghamshire. On the way I stopped at a Berni Inn, new in those days with glossy brochures containing photographs of meals and a thing called an 'Irish coffee'. I'd never seen anything like that before so I ordered one. Nice. And then another. And another. And I kept going.

Much later, I staggered out, finding a bench in a churchyard opposite, laid down and nodded off. I think it was opposite.

"Are you feeling all right, old chap?"

A rotund vicar was peering down at me.