Reviews Articles
Accompaniment, Community and Nature by Jonathan Herbert
Jonathan Herbert started his journey as an accompanier at eight years old, sitting on the vicarage doorstep with rough sleepers. He has since practised accompaniment in urban Liverpool, rural Dorset, the Solomon Islands, Uganda and Palestine. Decades later he has formulated his ideas on the subject, which, he claims, is...
Roger Fry: A biography, by Virginia Woolf
After four years studying English Literature at university, Virginia Woolf stuck in my mind as an author I really needed to look at in more detail in later life. It’s only taken me thirty-five years and a global pandemic to get round to reading her biography of Roger Fry,...
Confessions Of A Non-Violent Revolutionary by Chris Savory
This autobiography was written by a peace activist who for a number of years was a Friend. It is an easy-to-read, intriguing and racy record of a resonant journey. I learned a lot about someone with whom I was acquainted but didn’t know at any depth. Particularly striking was...
The Fabricated Christ: Confronting what we know about Jesus and the Gospels, by Paul Laffan
In the beginning was a folktale – a folktale about a holy man, a man of the people, cruelly done to death by the powerbrokers of the day. The man was impish and witty. Some say he was a bit of a devil, while others say he could have saved us,...
To Thine Own Self Be True: A spiritual journey by Howard Grace
This is a small book of thirty-two pages but it is not a quick read – there is much in this gem to reflect on. Howard Grace recounts a journey of four score years from militant atheist, to becoming a believer in ‘shared humanity’ as a Christian, to, finally, a Quaker.
The Dazzle of Day by Molly Gloss
This novel about Quakers travelling in outer space, published over twenty years ago, was reissued recently in a new edition. Its author is not a Friend but, like Walt Whitman, from whose poetry the title is taken, she considers the silence ‘after the dazzle of day is gone’. What happens,...
Jesus Today: A Quaker perspective
Michael Wright served for forty years as an Anglican priest before becoming a Friend. Before training at a theological college, he attended a Quaker Meeting and was attracted by its form and substance, especially Advices & queries. He is clearly stimulated by the life of Jesus and its relationship to...
Postnational Memory, Peace and War: Making pasts beyond borders
It can be difficult to escape national confines when thinking about peace and war – even for the peace movement. Key reference points often relate to specific conflicts. Conscientious objection, Quaker service, CND, white poppies and peace demos all have roots in UK history.
Wells of Thought: Gospel reflections on life and faith
This slim book of reflections on life and faith delighted me. It came to me when I was feeling low in lockdown: I found it a ‘balm in Gilead’.
Are We Done Fighting? Building understanding in a world of hate and division
In a world that was supposed to become more unified by technology and communications, the opposite seems to be happening. Divisions are deepening between nations and even within nations. The conflicts are often class-based, racially-based, generationally-based or even gender-based. We need a guidebook and Matthew Legge has written one.