Has he evolved into a sharing/caring man valuing women as equal- or has he remained a chauvinist?The opportunity to undertake

Has he evolved into a sharing/caring man, valuing women as equal- or has he remained a chauvinist?The opportunity to undertake vital international research presented itself unexpectedly during a trip to Italy to cover the singles holiday scene.Tess, the Sovereign hostess, provided a fascinating start when we headed into a Tuscan grocery shop to buy a few tomatoes. But above all, womaniser.
However, this is the new-age Nineties, and they are now our Eurocousins. Hence, in a charitable wave of political correctness it only seems fair to review the reputation of the Latin Lover. He’s wonderful But he’s Italian, a girlfriend sighed

Strange, isn’t it Take two words: “Italian” and “male”. Put them together, and they conjure up more adjectives than the Thesaurus: attractive, smooth, well-dressed, courtly, unfaithful, charming, childlike, petulant. They hadn’t had my address, but they knew, they just knew, they were sure, that I would come back..

We say that, well, it is a long journey to England, maybe we will come back in a few years, but maybe never Again the minister’s eyes look cloudy Genevieve squeezes my arm She hunches up her shoulders and smiles All along she had been expecting me. And the congregation, which has now swelled to 18, gathers for a photograph.As we leave, the minister asks when we will return. It turns out to be a closely argued biblical exegesis by the “spirit of the creative God”, Richard K Sleboe. According to Sleboe, there are not only two Gods, but also two Adams and two creations.I vaguely remember the two-Gods business – but the document makes no mention of the ten Gods. Are the deputy Gods a new elaboration; a perfect and appropriate mirror of the new Liberia, shattered into fragments by the war?The sun streams in through the window grille, and we go out to the back of the church through a door with the words “Never Never Never” chalked on the wood There is a banana tree and a clothes line. The ten Gods had fallen out among themselves and this accounted for the presence of turmoil and war in the world.The minister returns to the cupboard and brings out three pages of yellowed paper with a typed letterhead announcing the “Kingdom Assembly Church of Liberia”.

He crosses out the word “Liberia” and scrawls “Africa” in its place, then hands me the document. The ruling God had ousted the creating God and had in turn produced ten Gods of his own who now ruled the world. His eyes cloud over and he begins: of course there are two Gods – a creating God, who was good, and his mortal enemy, the ruling God, who was bad. Life was hard and there were many other members of the church now, but they were all away working…Then he asks, “You read the Good Book, sister?” I bluster evasively. He is incurious and answers questions in only the vaguest terms The war had been bad, but not too bad The rest of the congregation had fled the city. Maybe the Never Never Diers have found themselves a niche.The minister, who had retired into an adjoining cupboard, emerges wearing a pair of checked trousers.

Somehow the Never Never Diers no longer inspire such thorough hopelessness. Perhaps it’s the absence of the emaciated old men, who have apparently “fled with war”. Or perhaps it’s the new generation of Never Never Diers – for around us is a positive undergrowth of small children Or perhaps the change is more subtle, less tangible. The alarm clock, Genevieve assures me, is still used for services.Yet something seems to have changed. A crowd gathers round, including a bemused middle-aged man in shorts who is introduced as the minister. The tiny old woman, who is called Genevieve, turns out to be the tiny old woman from last time.The minister opens the church.