THE BISHOP of Oxford has shown himself to have a “wicked” sense of humour in a new book of published spoof letters.

The Morello Letters is a collection of hoax missives to a variety of personalities, British institutions and clubs around the country.

Their authors, ‘Mr and Mrs Morello’, are an Italian couple who live with three lazy children and a menagerie of animals in Ealing, West London, and spend their days writing to a host of high-profile people, including former Prime Minister Tony Blair, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and singer Sir Cliff Richard.

The couple are actually the alter egos of Duncan McNair, left, a London lawyer, who has published two books of the letters and their responses.

In a letter to the Rt Rev John Pritchard, right, ‘Mr Morello’ asks the Bishop if he could spare a building for his wife to found her own parish.

Bishop John, whose reply politely tells his wife to “dream on”, met his hoaxer yesterday.

He said: “Duncan McNair, alias Mr Morello, has a wonderfully witty style and I was delighted to meet him and exchange views on goats (of whom he seems particularly fond) and the many celebrities who have responded to his disarmingly outrageous letters.”