Reviews Articles
Living Presence: The Sufi path to mindfulness and the essential self, by Kabir Helminski
Over the years I have heard a number of Quakers comment that, while we are passionate about valuing and sharing silence, there is little substantial teaching on how to use and go deeply into it. There are of course various ‘enlightened’ spiritual teachers around, ancient and modern, who offer teaching...
Activism for Life, by Angie Zelter
Angie Zelter is a social change phenomenon. She is a dreamer of campaigns, creative strategist, meticulous researcher, persuasive negotiator, movement organiser, team-player and leader by example. She has an irrepressible vision of justice and peace and, naturally, a world free of nuclear weapons. Activism for Life recounts her story.
A Paradise Built in Hell, by Rebecca Solnit
Ten years before Rutger Bregman’s Humankind (see review 14 August 2020) Rebecca Solnit pre-figured his view of human nature as fundamentally kind and co-operative by analysing our response to catastrophe. It chimes well with our desire to recognise ‘that of God in everyone’.
Quicksand, by Henning Mankell
Henning Mankell, author of the Wallander books, wrote this series of short reflections before his death from lung cancer. It is subtitled ‘What it means to be a human being’. He explores what makes humans happy, what we mean by the joy of living, and how to keep positive given...
There is a toad in my garage
There is a toad in my garage All the small birds have gone away Or maybe the local cats got them Or the magpies.
Hope’s Work, by David Gee
David Gee, a long-time peace activist, wrote this book to ask if there can be a future in an age of crisis. Crisis seems to be a hallmark of our collective existence and recent history. The experience of it directs us to a turning-point. Which way to go? We have...
Backdoor Parole, by Journeyman Theatre
How wonderful it was to be back at Friends House in July to attend a live performance by Journeymen Theatre. Both were sources of joy.
Working with Conflict 2: Skills and strategies for action
When I began reading Working with Conflict 2: Skills and strategies for action, I thought it wouldn’t really be directly applicable to me. I don’t work for an NGO or in a conflict situation; my experience is parochial rather than global. But I was mistaken.
An Exacting Mistress: The Friends Ambulance Unit in WWII, edited by Antony Barlow
This is a substantial book, well produced, illustrated and indexed. It contains the wartime letters of Ralph Barlow and his wife Joan, the editor’s parents. Ralph was officer in charge of the Middle East Section of the Friends Ambulance Unit (FAU), and later its deputy director, travelling 30,000 miles...
Salter Lecture 2021: Quaker Values in South Africa’s Struggle, by Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge
The Quaker Socialist Society’s (QSS)Salter lecture, as most Friends will know, is named after social reformers Ada and Alfred. This year’s lecturer, Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge, former deputy minister of state in South Africa, began by speaking of their ‘amazing lives’. The pair were not thought to have had...