Culture Articles
Dear Life, by Rachel Clarke
This book may change your thinking – it has done mine. It deals with life and death and the journeys of those who are terminally ill. And yet it is about so much more than that. It is joyful, sad, funny, compassionate and above all full of love, celebrating the gift...
Parliament of fowls
Inaudible as force, a blackbird descends – she’s charred sky-chaff, (I want to say) incombustible. Winter’s bonfire’s out for this blank bird,
The Assault on Truth, by Peter Oborne
When the Truth and Integrity in Public Affairs committee was laid down by Meeting for Sufferings in 2004, it seemed the right decision. Broadly speaking, public affairs were conducted correctly by a civil service dedicated to ‘integrity, honesty, objectivity and impartiality’, and by politicians who, if they lied to parliament, resigned....
No Visible Injuries, by Sylvia Clare
The longer I live, the less I consider ‘growing up’ limited to childhood. This memoir by Sylvia Clare, of Isle of Wight Meeting, reminds me that the ‘growing up’ of our consciousness continues throughout life. This can happen in unexpected awakenings, when long-buried childhood shock bursts out, or in fond...
Patterns of Russia: History, culture and spaces, by Robin Milner-Gulland
This is another of those ‘personality and place’ books which are now becoming common. In this book, the place is Russia. The country is well known as a place of three cities – Kiev, Moscow and St Petersburg – but its extent is better conveyed by three ports: Archangel, Odessa, and Astrakhan...
The Life That Never Ends by Quaker Fellowship for Afterlife Studies
This is a delightful anthology of Friends’ experiences. For ease of reading, it is arranged under different headings: ‘As Death Approaches’, ‘After Death Communications’, ‘Near Death Experiences’, ‘Animals and Afterlife’, and there are also some miscellaneous experiences.
The Glorious Journey, by Liam Kelly
I did not have the good fortune to see the film on which this book is based. Its principal characters are Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, then pope, and Jorge Bergoglio, the current pope (then cardinal). It starred Anthony Hopkins as Ratzinger and Jonathan Pryce as Bergoglio.
Breathtaking: Inside the NHS in a time of pandemic, by Rachel Clark
This book is about faith. Not faith in God, but faith in medicine, and faith in one’s fellow professionals. ‘You have to promise me something… you’ll make sure you won’t catch it. You, the nurses, all of you here.’ This is from one of two sons watching...
Wilding: the return of nature to a British farm, by Isabella Tree
The Durham Quaker book group turned out to be remarkably well-qualified to discuss Isabella Tree’s 2019 book Wilding, our choice for February 2021. The Quakers and others who attended via Zoom included two professional ecologists, at least four serious walkers, and a couple with an extensive city garden that they are...
How Long, How Long Must We Wait?, by Anne M Jones
Six years ago there was a lot of publicity about ‘The Jungle’ refugee camp near Calais. It was home to over a thousand people, all wanting to come to Britain. Anne Jones worked there for several years and has written-up her absorbing book of reflections in diary format.