Today's reading is neither poetry nor fiction but is prose of a different sort. It is one of C. S. Lewis's great essays, one which feels more relevant today than ever. But it will make you think a fair bit.…
Thomas Gray by John Giles Eccardt, (1747-1748) Time to get out of the house. We're allowed out for up to an hour a day, which is just as well as we'd lose the plot otherwise, as would the dog. Followers…
Apologies for being lax yesterday. Normal transmission can now be resumed. I'm hoping to be daily but it's funny how busy things are even during this extended home assignment! Today I'm going to read some poems from someone who is…
I think this is him! Time to take a break from seriousness and intensity. Here's some much-needed light relief. Patrick Barrington, or as he was to become, the 11th (and last) Viscount Barrington of Ardglass and 11th Baron Barrington of…
William Cowper by Lemuel Francis Abbott (1792) Q regulars will know that William Cowper has been a personal favourite for years. He had to navigate the storms of mental illness throughout his adult life, without any of the understanding, support…
Today's lockdown reading is unique. It's never been published before (apart from being posted on this blog about four years ago) but I think you'll agree is very special indeed. Fuller details are on that post, so to prevent undue…
W H Auden had in later life the most wonderfully craggy face in English literature. But this poem comes from many years earlier and is rather less heart-warming than the others we've had. But then, because we can't always be…
Alan Paton (1903-1988) was a South African who spent decades fighting against the apartheid system. He was a founding member of the Liberal Party of South Africa and worked in it until it was banned by the government. He is…
R. S. Thomas, I imagine, would not necessarily have had much time for me. I don't really know why I think that (and I'm probably committing a gross calumny), but there's a severity and pointedness to his writing which suggests…
Here is the first in what will be a daily (or almost daily) reading of some great, inspirational or devotional writing from the past, and perhaps the present. https://vimeo.com/398583298 More about George Herbert The BagLove (III)
It seems strange to continue this series while the coronavirus is uppermost in our minds, but with the growing need for self-isolation, it is perhaps all the more important to continue long-standing online conversations. Last weekend was Purim. It's an…
There's a special quality to the landscape at Little Gidding. It's not spectacular, nor is it especially unusual. It's archetypally English: undulating, Midlands farmland, broken up by hedgerows, small copses, and the odd steeple. It's a scene replicated across the…