Today is 21st October, CE, or for the more old-fashioned, Anno Domini. Our years are counted from someone long ago’s approximation of the date Jesus Christ was born. (Tom Holland’s interesting novel “Olympiad” traces modern dating back via the birth of Jesus and the founding of Rome...
A while back, I wrote a blog post here: https://www.penelopewallace.com/two-things-i-dislike-about-facebook/. I began by saying: I am finding Facebook, although terrifyingly time-wasting, a source of a lot of innocent fun, gossip and useful information (as well as those pesky cats). I am still refusing to wish everyone a...
San Diego is a magnificent city in California. I would like to tell you what I most wanted to see when we went there for a conference of Mark’s earlier this year, and why. You can award yourself points when you see where this is going. Thousands...
There are so many exciting and inspiring stories in the Bible – wouldn’t it be good if someone occasionally made a popular film out of one of them? Well, in 2014 someone did, a film which I somehow missed watching or reading reviews of. This was...
(After last week's froth, something rather darker. Warning: contents may distress or disturb.) In December last year, a sentencing judge said to a woman who had defrauded and attempted to murder her sister, “Quite frankly, you are evil.” Judges do say this kind of thing, and I...
(Warning: spoilers below) “What’s the best love story you’ve ever read?” This was the question interestingly posed on Facebook’s Woman Alive Book Club page. There were a lot of suggestions – Ross and Demelza from Poldark, “Pride and Prejudice” and “Jane Eyre” were obviously high on the...
A friend recently lent me "Understanding the Bible" by John Stott. (Please note this is a review of the 1972 edition. I’m sure there must be a later one. This has nice illustrations by Annie Vallotton, who did the gorgeous drawings in the Good News Bible.) I...
It seems a long time since I posted anything about the continent of Ragaris, or the novels about life and murder there that I am hoping to inflict on the world. There is news. As far as writing goes – I am still seeking to publish Ragaris...
If your friend came to you and said, “The woman next door is a witch, and her spell is the reason my brother got cancer,” you would not believe him. Would you? We're all civilised nowadays. In 1900, Frank L Baum published a story called “The...
So far, in my posting about Esau, I have concentrated on the case for the defence – Esau’s alleged sinfulness, and God’s choice. And of course it’s very reassuring that God can still “choose”, and certainly use and bless, someone like Jacob. Someone whose life from...