Happy New Year, everyone! We start 2018 with a guest review of a film still in cinemas, but which many of you will have seen. My friend and co-warden Clint Redwood is an avid watcher and commentator on all things Star Wars. If you want to see...
I am strongly tempted in the madness that is December, to save energy by recycling my anti-Christmas rant on this blog about seasonal busyness https://www.penelopewallace.com/christmas-busy-ness/, my anti-Santa rant https://www.penelopewallace.com/santa-claus-is-coming-to-town/, and my Advent calendar rant https://www.penelopewallace.com/advent-calendars/. Instead, however, I will write a few words on the subject...
I really did mean to keep the blog free of book-plugging for a bit, but it's been quite a busy week. As most of you know, "The Tenth Province of Jaryar" comes out officially on Monday, and as all of you know, it's nearly Christmas. My...
A belated Happy St Andrew’s Day to you all! St Andrew is of course the patron saint (whatever that means) of Scotland, and also of a few other places, including Russia. For most Scots, this today means a day to celebrate Scottishness, and a rather arresting...
At the end of last week, Windows 10 tried to introduce some updates to our essential family computer which couldn’t cope with them. (Mac users, please don’t gloat.) After two very frustrating days and at least four calls to the helpline, we are almost back running,...
The blog and the website are now two years old. Last year I posted a few reflections on the first anniversary, quoting my original post’s intentions for the blog as: Publicising my work (the Tales from Ragaris) Expressing my opinions Glorifying God. Later in the post,...
I’ve fairly recently finished reading William Hague’s lengthy biography (500+ pages) of William Wilberforce, the independent MP and evangelical Christian who spent twenty years campaigning in Parliament for the abolition of the slave trade. His efforts eventually led to the Slave Trade Act of 1807. This...
It has occurred to me that in nearly two years of writing this blog, I have never yet posted about the day job. The one that isn’t actually a job. Every Church of England church is supposed to have two churchwardens, even churches that don’t have...
Weekends have their rituals, and along with church, laundry and the daytime company of my son and husband, my ritual is the Saturday Guardian. The Guardian is a daily paper, available in print and online, but the Saturday version is the fat one. The one with...
A lot of theological ink has been spilt on the following sentence from a book called “The Lost Message of Jesus” by Steve Chalke and Alan Mann: "The fact is that the cross isn’t a form of cosmic child abuse—a vengeful Father, punishing his Son for...