One couple even enjoys a fumble while on a walk in the countryside.

The newly-appointed bishop said it was an "enormous privilege" to be his wife's first reader.

He added: "She is an extraordinarily creative, compelling writer. She is particularly good at characterisation and dialogue, her characters are very believable, but she doesn't tidy anything up.

"She writes about the Christian gospel and its impact on individual lives, but she doesn't make everything neat and tidy because life just isn't that way.

"Her books can come as something of a shock to Christians who pick them up because they know that she's married to a Christian priest, and they're not used to reading contemporary literary fiction.

"They don't come as anything like a shock to people who are used to reading the genre in which Cathy writes."

The couple met while both were studying at Durham University, and they have two adult sons.

Dr Wilcox said he was "excited" to take on the new role, adding: "The opportunity to be the diocesan bishop of somewhere northern and urban just absolutely is for me."

Mr North said he was “overjoyed" at the news. He said: "He will bring great intelligence, insight, and evangelistic energy to the Diocese of Sheffield along with experience of ministry from a wide variety of contexts."