Reviews Articles

Human Traces, by Sebastian Faulks

30 November 2023 | by Martin Shallcross

'Humans now have words in which they can communicate. They tell stories, describe dreams and hear inner voices.' | Book cover of Human Traces, by Sebastian Faulks

This book is about two doctors, one French, Jacques, one English, Thomas. They form a close friendship. Jacques marries Thomas’ sister Sonia. The story begins in the 1880s when mentally ill people are locked away, often indefinitely, in lunatic asylums. They are called ‘aliens’. Those caring for them are known...

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Do Quakers Pray?, by Jennifer Kavanagh

30 November 2023 | by Annique Seddon

'We become part of the conversation.’ | Book cover of Do Quakers Pray?, by Jennifer Kavanagh

Many of us already know and value Jennifer Kavanagh’s first book in the Quaker Quicks series, Practical Mystics, in which she explores the spiritually-attuned faith-in-action of Quaker experience. Her latest addition to the series helps us to think through, with wonder, the multifaceted nature of prayer as experienced by...

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Peace! Books! Freedom! The secret history of a radical London building, by Rosa Schling

30 November 2023 | by Andrew Rigby

'I was reminded of how different campaigning was in the 1970s.' | Book cover of Peace! Books! Freedom! The secret history of a radical London building, by Rosa Schling

A small group of volunteers has been working on the digitisation of Peace News, a publication with which many Friends will be familiar. Coincidentally, as the run from 1950-1959 was uploaded, a new oral history was published of 5 Caledonian Road, the premises that Peace News occupied in 1959 (and which continues...

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Bible and Poetry, by Michael Edwards

30 November 2023 | by Simon Webb

Light, wind, fire, all natural phenomena, brush against the invisible and open this world to another that, always present, suffuses it...' | Book cover of Bible and Poetry, by Michael Edwards

This book begins with the bold assertion that ‘we do not read the Bible as it is meant to be read’. After a sentence that casts shade on traditional theological approaches, its author goes on to explain that it’s ‘the presence of poetry in the Bible’ that is ‘the...

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Callings, by Lucy Rushton

30 November 2023 | by Marisa Johnson

'The landscape, people and culture of Burma, so alien to the missionaries, are vividly brought to life.' | Book cover of Callings, by Lucy Rushton

At the last Meeting for Sufferings, held in Leeds at the beginning of October, I met my f/Friend Lucy Faulkner Gawlinski. She had recently published a novel, Callings, under her maiden name of Rushton. She gave me a copy as a gift.

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What’s Eating the Universe? And other cosmic questions, by Paul Davies

26 October 2023 | by Reg Naulty

'Mathematical harmony suggests that there was a great mind which produced it. It doesn’t prove that, though it prompts a further test.' | Book cover of What’s Eating the Universe? And other cosmic questions, by Paul Davies

When he was living in Australia, Paul Davies was interviewed by the journal Island (Winter 1992). Davies is a theoretical physicist, cosmologist, astrobiologist, broadcaster, and best-selling author. In the published conversation, he discussed the philosophical implications of current cosmology. Some of what he said would have encouraged an exponent of the...

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The Unexpected Marriage of Mary Bennet by Alison Leonard

19 October 2023 | by Jeff Phelps

'This is surely a Quaker insight: to build on who we are with all our difficulties and disappointments rather than allow them to overwhelm us.' | Book cover of The Unexpected Marriage of Mary Bennet by Alison Leonard

It is always fascinating to read fiction by a Quaker author. Even when there isn’t a single Quaker character in the novel, the sensibilities still shine through. Here, Alison Leonard chooses one of the more overlooked members of the Pride and Prejudice Bennet family to build her story around.

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Thee Quaker, produced by Georgia Sparling and Jon Watts

05 October 2023 | by Kate Macdonald

‘Voices reveal a lot about people.’ |

I have been enjoying the new(ish) North American Quaker podcast, Thee Quaker, for some months. I found it because I was looking for another podcast about Quakers when the Friend’s own podcast went on (temporary) hiatus, and now I also support it on Patreon (an online membership platform...

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Black Mahler: The Samuel Coleridge-Taylor story, by Charles Elford

05 October 2023 | by Simon Webb

'It took me until 2020 to find out that the black British composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor had lived and died in St Leonards Road, right around the corner.' | Book cover of Black Mahler: The Samuel Coleridge-Taylor story, by Charles Elford

I was happy at my Anglican primary school in Croydon, though it was the sixties and it was ‘a different time’. We exited assemblies to the accompaniment of regimental marches played on a gramophone, and were expected to learn our letters from a reading-scheme populated entirely by middle-class children, none...

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Israelophobia: The newest version of the oldest hatred and what to do about it, by Jake Wallis Simon

28 September 2023 | by Ol Rappaport | 3 comments

At the core of the book are three pivotal chapters: ‘Demonisation’, ‘Weaponisation’ and ‘Falsification’. | Book cover of Israelophobia: The newest version of the oldest hatred and what to do about it, by Jake Wallis Simon

Friends may remember an article I wrote just a year ago: ‘Is the Religious Society of Friends antisemitic?’ (30 September 2022). It was based on an analysis of letters and articles in the Friend. It provoked a wide range of responses, not all critical. I haven’t been able to pursue the...

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