Dear readers I am afraid this has been a busy week, so no post. Instead I shall copy and paste this poem, which I have more or less decided to learn. What do you think? The Daniel Jazz By Vachel Lindsay Inscribed to Isadora Bennett LET the singer train the audience to...
I think it’s in “That Hideous Strength” that CS Lewis introduces a couple who share a liking for “weather” – not “good” weather, but weather in general. What sensible people, and of course they’re British. In similar vein, Jacob Rees-Mogg’s book “The Victorians” comments on...
I might have posted this week on how pleasant (albeit chilly) it is to eat breakfast at newly-reopened cafés along Beeston High St, but this blog has spent a year trying to keep off the subject of coronavirus, so I won’t. Instead, here is a...
It's Good Friday, and perhaps I should give you something spiritual - but you have many other sources for that. So - I love literary quizzes. They come in many topics, but I haven’t seen this one done before. We all know that Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy...
I’ve finished rereading “The Lord of the Rings,” an activity I separated into four distinct chunks. It was as always a very pleasant experience. I was pleased to note that the blowing of the horns of Rohan outside Minas Tirith retains its power to thrill...
I apologise for rehashing an old post this week. I feel busy. But today is the first Friday in March, and therefore the World Day of Prayer service. It wasn't of course in person in Beeston Methodist Church, but held by zoom, with downloaded music. The concept...
Recently, our church was encouraged to read a book called “The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry”, subtitled “How to stay emotionally healthy and spiritually alive in the chaos of the modern world.” So much of it I found intensely annoying, and yet it is a useful book....
[Apologies for this post being a day late.] Well, how are things going? There are three things to say: The Ragaris Fortnight sold 18 books (up to the end of October): 10 paperback volumes that I sold in person, and 8 online, 7 of the 8 Kindle. Hopefully...
Next month a man named Richard Sharp (not the character written by Bernard Cornwell and played by Sean Bean) takes over as Chairman of the BBC’s Board of Governors. Paragraph 20(2) of the Corporation’s Charter says: In accordance with article 3 (independence of the BBC), each member...
I have been thinking lately about repentance. It has surprised me considerably that during this last year’s seemingly endless stream of new horrors, there have been few calls – to my knowledge – for us all to repent to save ourselves from divine wrath, even from...