Reviews Articles
Between Living and Dying: Reflections from the edge of experience, by Ruth Scott
I bought this book because I wanted to compare the author’s experience of lymphoma with my own. Ruth Scott was diagnosed with an aggressive form of Non Hodgkin’s in 2017, and I was told in 2004 that I have an indolent, slow-growing one. We both had a stem cell transplant:...
English Pastoral: An inheritance, by James Rebanks
All the churches are now talking about the environment, but how many of us can talk about it with real authority? To have a comprehensive idea of what’s happening, one needs knowledge in a variety of fields: chemistry, botany, economics, even astronomy and palaeontology.
Return from a Distant Country, by Alister McGrath
Alister McGrath started out as an atheist enamoured of Marxism and scientism. He studied chemistry at Oxford, specialising in quantum theory. Along the way he discovered Christianity, being fascinated by its intellectual and imaginative depth. He wrote this short, intriguing book to set out the points where he believes science...
Dune, directed by Denis Villeneuve
I came across Frank Herbert’s novel Dune as a student in the mid 1970s. Like many back then, I was looking for an epic world of fantasy and adventure as a ‘next read’ after exhausting all the works of JRR Tolkien. The film in cinemas now is the latest...
A design for life: Eleanor Nesbitt on architect Thomas Rickman
As a Coventry Quaker I’m excited by the reopening of Drapers’ Hall. It was built by Quaker architect Thomas Rickman and his partner Henry Hutchinson. It opened in 1832. The repurposing of the hall is one of seven projects celebrating Charles Windsor’s seventieth birthday.
Review: The Shorter Proust
Some years ago I decided that, if I wished to consider myself well read, I should read Remembrance of Things Past in its entirety, all 3,300 pages of it. I dutifully set myself a daily reading schedule with the aim of getting through the entire behemoth within the year.
Hope and Witness in Dangerous Times by J Brent Bill
The Quaker Quicks offer accessible texts on key aspects of the Quaker way. These little books are suitable for both Friends and interested observers. In this case, US Friend, Brent Bill, who has written widely on Quaker spirituality, disciplines, and humour, considers how the Quaker understanding of witness can help...
The Primacy of Love, by Ilia Delio
This is part of a series launched by DLT Books called ‘My Theology’. It will consist of brief statements by leading theologians. Among them is one of my favourites, Ilia Delio. She is a Franciscan sister whose interest is in the integration of science, religion and culture. Currently she is...
My Life Story: A Child Of The Windrush Generation, by Xystus Sestus Marcell
This small book tells the story, in his own words, of a man who came to the east end of London from St Lucia, in 1972. Xystus Sestus Marcel’s name refers to the book of Exodus, a reminder of enslaved people coming into emancipation. He was fourteen when he arrived,...
The Deepening Stream, by Dorothy Canfield Fisher
Dorothy Canfield Fisher’s 1930 novel will soon be available in a new edition from Persephone Books, and has a particular interest for Friends. Fisher was not, so far as I can make out, a Quaker herself, but her vigorous involvement in pacifism, war relief in the first world war, child...