(Photo by Phil Hearing on Unsplash) Back in the 1980s I was fascinated to read a book called ‘The Lost Villages of Britain’ by Richard Muir and the greatest honour I can pay it is to say that it remains on my shelves to this day when many other books have gone. It whetted my…
(Image © Claudio Schwarz on Unsplash) I can remember Standing by the wall And the guns shot above our heads And we kissed as though nothing could fall And the shame was on the other side Oh, we can beat them for ever and ever It’s funny how you can hear a song countless times…
Sing to the Lord a New Song Welcome to a new series that seeks to take inspiration from the words of newer hymns and songs. The Goodness of Jesus Come you weary heart now to Jesus Come you anxious soul now and see There is perfect love and comfort in your tears Rest here in…
Many people, not least schoolchildren, rejoice at the sight of a mid-winter snowfall but not so my wife – and that applied even when she was a school child! Indeed, on one of her first schools days as a 5-year old she tells me that she had to crawl up the school drive on hands…
If you follow football you will almost certainly be aware of a recent giant killing in the FA Cup when the holders, Crystal Palace, were knocked out by non-league Macclesfield Town who play their football six divisions below the Premier League. You may also recall a similar thing two years ago when Ipswich Town lost…
I went to the cinema recently and had a wonderful surprise. I saw a poster advertising a film due out at the end of March. The film is called ‘The Magic Faraway Tree’ and it’s based upon a series of children’s books by Enid Blyton. The reason I looked at the poster with delight is…
(Photo by Lourenço Pavão on Unsplash) Travel to Caithness in Scotland and, on a remote stretch of shoreline, you will find poetry by the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda. Here, carved into the rocks, are complete poems and further extracts from more than twenty of his works – written in the original Spanish. Why? You might…
One of the titles given to Mary by the early church is that of ‘theotokos’ which translates into English as ‘mother of God’ or ‘God bearer’. It’s a reminder to us of the seriousness of this task to which she was called. “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most…
Christmas is with us again and all those festivities we associate with the Christmas season. Chances are you’ll be singing carols, giving and receiving presents and, for many of us, enjoying a turkey dinner on Christmas Day. Ever wonder why turkeys are called turkeys? They don’t come from the country of Turkey – or Türkiye…
I have to confess to being a Bruce Springsteen fan, at least a fan of his earlier albums back in the 1970s and early 80s. The turning point was the release of his sixth album, Nebraska, in 1982. This was very different to what had gone before. Rolling Stone reviewed it like this: After ten…