Glittering Images is narrated by The Revd Canon Dr Charles Ashworth, a Cambridge academic who undergoes something of a spiritual and nervous breakdown after being sent by the Archbishop of Canterbury surreptitiously to investigate a menage a trois in the household of the Bishop of Starbridge. Ashworth is helped to recovery, and to realise the source of his problems by Fr Jonathan Darrow, the Abbot of the Granchester Abbey of the Fordite Monks.

An outstanding storyteller, Susan Howatch has created a novel of spirituality and morality where the loyalties and passions of four people are played out against their dedication to religion and the path of right.
"Passionately eloquent...[A] tale of God, sex, love, self-analysis and forgiveness."
THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER