So apologies are due; a daily echo was proving a little too much to manage, especially because we've been beset by various challenges in the last few days. So I'll aim for 3 or 4 a week. How's that? Today…
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…
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…
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…
Sacred Treasure There has been much heat and hurt recently about power abuse and church ministry. It is something that I've been working on and engaging with for the last 10 years or so. Here are some of the better…
Previous posts Anti-Semitism in the UK: 1. 75 years after Auschwitz...Anti-Semitism in the UK: 2. The challenge of definitions Now I'm super-conscious that the previous post is controversial. But here's one difficulty with it in particular. Supposing, then, that it…
Sacred Treasure This is an extraordinary story that reads like a whodunnit: the stolen early manuscript of Mark? (long read but worth it)I'm an unashamed John Dickson fan - his new book on the historical Jesus looks great: here he…