I visited a National Trust property a few days ago – Lyveden New Bield near Oundle in the heart of the Northamptonshire countryside. This is an unusual property in that it was build by an Elizabethan gentleman who left it unfinished. And it hasn’t fallen down, or been looted, or demolished, or built over, in theContinue reading “Faded Splendour, Unfinished Grand Schemes, Unfulfilled Dreams”
Category Archives: spirituality
Folk Festival Fun for Warwick
This weekend Warwick hosted its annual Folk Festival. Folk dancers and singers were out in force together with a wide variety of creative stallholders and vendors, and everywhere we saw bright coloured clothes and gypsy-style skirts and hats decorated with flowers. In common with many others I love to watch to listen to folk songsContinue reading “Folk Festival Fun for Warwick”
Supernatural Power versus Rationalism: Sorcerers and Sceptics at Warwick Words Summer Festival 2014
Last night I went to a fascinating discussion between two authors at the final event of the Warwick Words summer festival. The talk was held in the beautiful 15th century Great Hall of the Lord Leycester Hospital, Warwick. Ian Mathie, author of Sorcerers and Orange Peel, spoke about his travels in remote African communities over many years andContinue reading “Supernatural Power versus Rationalism: Sorcerers and Sceptics at Warwick Words Summer Festival 2014”
Do Novelists Have an Agenda or a Moral Purpose?
This morning on BBC Radio 4’s Start the Week programme I listened to a fascinating panel discussion from the Charleston Festival. Tom Sutcliffe questioned four novelists: Tim Winton, Nicola Barker, Michael Schmidt and Karl Knausgaard. Two of the questions Tom Sutcliffe asked were: Do novelists have an agenda or a moral purpose? Do you as a novelistContinue reading “Do Novelists Have an Agenda or a Moral Purpose?”
Harmony, the Music of the Spheres and Glimpses of Eternity
The other day I was at an inspirational concert in a village church in Warwickshire, Hatton Church, listening to a small choir called Amici sing a mixture of early music and contemporary music. They sang a capella music by such composers as William Byrd, Orlando Gibbons and Ralph Vaughan Williams. On one occasion the conductor pointed outContinue reading “Harmony, the Music of the Spheres and Glimpses of Eternity”
Kairos Moments in Life – Broken Priests and More Insights from BBC TV sitcom ‘Rev’
As I think again about the BBC TV sitcom Rev the word wrecked comes to my mind. Probably my favourite character in Rev is Colin the local vagrant, brilliantly played by Steve Evets. I described him as a philosopher tramp in my previous post on Rev. But there is a much darker side to Colin,Continue reading “Kairos Moments in Life – Broken Priests and More Insights from BBC TV sitcom ‘Rev’”
Holywell Retreat, A Place of Spiritual Inspiration on the Sussex Coast
I’ve written before in this blog about those sacred spaces which are known in Ancient Celtic terms as thin places. These are places where you are led to believe that the veil between the visible and the invisible worlds is thin. They don’t have to be obviously religious places. In fact once I read ofContinue reading “Holywell Retreat, A Place of Spiritual Inspiration on the Sussex Coast”
Rocky Hillsides, Dark Valleys and the One Voice You Can Trust
In our lives we can often find that there seems to be one poem or a prayer which has been most helpful, most meaningful to us. For me this has been the 23rd Psalm: The Lord Is My Shepherd. In times of strong negative emotion, the words though I walk through the valley of the shadow ofContinue reading “Rocky Hillsides, Dark Valleys and the One Voice You Can Trust”
Loyalty, Hope and Keeping Faith, in the Greatest Film I’ve Ever Seen: The Shawshank Redemption
We love listing “The 50 Top … Films, Books, Magic Tricks, Comedians”, etc. etc. And a list of the top films will always change from year to year. But to my mind, The Shawshank Redemption makes the top of the list. And I saw it again very recently on TV. I watched it for the first timeContinue reading “Loyalty, Hope and Keeping Faith, in the Greatest Film I’ve Ever Seen: The Shawshank Redemption”
A Vision of Healing Through The Power of Prayer in Leamington Spa
Over the last few weeks I’ve been taking a few hours of time out from revising my novel, to do voluntary work for our local Christian Healing Centre, The Well. I help to update the website, assist the Director of The Well, Rev. Anne Hibbert, with her blog, proofread publicity material and prepare leaflets advertising forthcoming events.Continue reading “A Vision of Healing Through The Power of Prayer in Leamington Spa”
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