''Made for Man'' is a 1958

comedy novel A comic novel is a Novel, novel-length work of humorous fiction. Many well-known authors have written comic novels, including P. G. Wodehouse, Henry Fielding, Mark Twain, and John Kennedy Toole. Comic novels are often defined by the author's liter ...

by the British writer

A. P. Herbert Sir Alan Patrick Herbert CH (known as A. P. Herbert; 24 September 1890 – 11 November 1971), was an English humorist, novelist, playwright, law reformist, and, from 1935 to 1950, an independent Member of Parliament for Oxford University. Bo ...

. Herbert had long been a campaigner for reform to Britain's divorce laws, which had been the subject of his earlier novel ''

Holy Deadlock ''Holy Deadlock'' is a 1934 satirical novel by the English author A. P. Herbert, which aimed to highlight the perceived inadequacies and absurdities of contemporary divorce law. The book took a particularly lenient view of the need for divorces, ...

''. In this case the topic concerned the right of divorced couples to remarry in the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

. Herbert portrayed this through two couples who are unable to marry in church, with one pairing modelled on

Princess Margaret Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon (Margaret Rose; 21 August 1930 – 9 February 2002) was the younger daughter of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. She was the younger sister and only sibling of Queen Elizabeth II. ...

and Peter Townsend. He had once divorced an actress, and so the

Archbishop of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the Primus inter pares, ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the bishop of the diocese of Canterbury. The first archbishop ...

cannot marry them even though the prospective bride is his

goddaughter Within Christianity, a godparent or sponsor is someone who bears witness to a child's baptism (christening) and later is willing to help in their catechesis, as well as their lifelong spiritual formation. In both religious and civil views, ...

.Holmes p.83-84

References

Bibliography

* Holmes, Ann Sumner. ''The Church of England and Divorce in the Twentieth Century: Legalism and Grace''. Taylor & Francis, 2016. 1958 British novels British comedy novels Novels by A. P. Herbert Novels set in London Methuen Publishing books {{1950s-comedy-novel-stub