Reviews Articles
Jews Don’t Count, by David Baddiel
Many Quakers feel uncomfortable when approaching the issue of anti-Semitism. This year there have been firm statements from Friends House condemning the activities of the Israeli government, but nothing specifically about the increasingly violent incidents of anti-Semitism in this country. It is almost as if some Quakers feel that Jews...
Hello, Stranger, by Will Buckingham
I was only a few pages into Hello, Stranger when I realised I wished to commend this book to fellow Quakers. Its subjects, which include the experience of being a stranger and the welcome we offer others, challenged me to consider what our current concern with inclusion requires.
Rebelling for Life, by Sue Hampton
This is a short book: a collection of poetry, short stories and other prose dating from 2019 and 2020. Sue starts with a heart-rending wail at the climate crisis. The first poem, written in a police cell after arrest during the London arms fair, takes us through: her physical sensations; the Meeting...
What White People Can Do Next: From allyship to coalition, by Emma Dabiri
After Derek Chauvin’s sentencing for the murder of George Floyd, Floyd’s sister, Bridgett, said: ‘The sentence… shows that matters of police brutality are finally being taken seriously. However, we have a long way to go… before black and brown people finally feel like they are being treated fairly...
Censorship Overruled: An alternative history of 1918, by John Ellison
John Ellison’s short book opens at the beginning of 1918, when there was much discontent over food shortages and prices in Britain. There were many calls for peace, stimulated by Russia’s socialist revolution in 1917. It concentrates on the following eleven months, January to November, with Britain centre-stage.
Undercover Trophy Hunter: Britain’s top 20 hunters revealed, by Eduardo Goncalves
Portsmouth Friend Eduardo Goncalves’ fourth book on trophy hunting explores this – shockingly thriving – British community. Eduardo was once an investigative journalist and he uses this skill to take us into the world and mind of those who enjoy recreational killing. For a year he went undercover posing as someone seeking...
Sayings on the Riches of Life by Rosemary May Wells
Rosemary May Wells is a prolific but gentle writer. I find her writings an inspiration. Sayings on the Riches of Life is a departure from her usual work, however. It is a wide-ranging collection of sayings drawn from a very broad compass. Some are paraphrases of well-known quotes, others are...
Living in the Mystery: Between head and heart, by Jan Arriens
Jan Arriens’ book is a personal account of his experiences around life and death. Jan is a Quaker by convincement: at his first Meeting, as he tells us in his introductory chapter, he found himself ‘swept up in a kind of forcefield’ and his ‘vertical sense of connection with whatever...
The Truth About Modern Slavery, by Emily Kenway
In this lucid book, Emily Kenway argues that the idea of ‘modern slavery’, as framed by some politicians and campaigners, is a misleading concept. It not only misrepresents the nature of the problem, she says, but actively acts against the kinds of policies and practices that would actually help with...
Asperger’s Children: The origins of autism in Nazi Vienna, by Edith Sheffer
This is one of the most harrowing books I have ever read. Edith Sheffer is a historian in the USA. Her son Eric, aged thirteen, is among the one-in-sixty children being diagnosed on the autism spectrum there. She dedicated this book to Eric.