Jack Carrigan, Author at Catholic Herald

Jack Carrigan

The evangelist who won’t upset the world

March 29, 2018

To Light a Fire on the Earth by Robert Barron and John L Allen Jr, image books, 272pp, £20 The seasoned Catholic journalist and commentator John Allen spent 20 hours interviewing Auxiliary Bishop Robert Barron in 2016 and 2017. This book is the result. For those who have not yet encountered Bishop Barron’s Word on

How to heal the tortured 21st-century soul

March 01, 2018

Confession: The Healing of the Soul by Peter Tyler, 224PP, Bloomsbury, £14.99 Peter Tyler is both professor of pastoral theology and spirituality at St Mary’s University and a psychotherapist. So it is safe to assume that his reflections on the sacrament of Confession will come from an unconventional perspective. He does not disappoint. Writing primarily

The Gulag survivor who prayed for Lenin

February 22, 2018

With God in Russia by Walter Ciszek SJ and Daniel Flaherty SJ, Harperone, 403pp, £15 Originally published in 1964 and recently reissued, this account of a priestly life spent in Soviet prisons and Siberian labour camps for 23 years has become a modern classic. On his release and return to America in 1963, Fr Ciszek

How priests coped in ‘satanic’ death camps

January 25, 2018

The Priest Barracks by Guillaume Zeller, Ignatius, 274pp, £13 Dachau, the first of the infamous Nazi concentration camps, was constructed in 1933 on the outskirts of Munich. Between 1938 and 1945, 2,579 priests, monks and seminarians were imprisoned there, in three specially designated barrack blocks: numbers 26, 28 and 30. At total of 1,034 priests

Christmas from Dickens to Capra

December 21, 2017

Christmas: A Biography by Judith Flanders, 256pp, Picador, £15 The crisp and quirky title tells us that this is an investigation into the social phenomenon of Christmas and not an exploration of the story of the Incarnation as told in the Gospel accounts of Matthew and Luke. Judith Flanders is a cultural historian who has

Britain’s answer to Fra Angelico

August 31, 2017

Eularia Clarke: Painter of Religion by Rebecca Sherlaw-Johnson, Amazon, £15 The painter Eularia Clarke is not well known. I hope this comprehensive biography, written by her granddaughter, will go some way to remedy this. Her paintings deserve wider recognition and appreciation – her life, with its many tribulations and rarer triumphs, cannot be separated from

The spymaster who crushed British fascism

July 13, 2017

M: Maxwell Knight by Henry Hemming, Preface, £20 The epigraph to this fascinating book is the extraordinary statement of EM Forster in Two Cheers for Democracy: “If I had to choose between betraying my country and betraying my friend, I hope I should have the guts to betray my country.” It could only have been

Russia caught in a downward spiral

June 29, 2017

Who Lost Russia? by Peter Conradi, Oneworld, £18.99 Peter Conradi, Reuters correspondent in Moscow between 1988 and 1995 and now foreign editor of the Sunday Times, has written a balanced and informative account of what happened to Russia after the collapse of communism. I recommend it to all seeking a clear overview of recent history.

Searching for the true face of Islam

May 18, 2017

Letters to a Young Muslim By Omar Saif Ghobash, Picador, £12.99 This is a thought-provoking book, written by the United Arab Emirates’ ambassador to Russia to his two teenage sons. Omar Saif Ghobash, the son of a Russian mother and an Arab father who was killed by terrorists in 1977 when the author was four,

A great escape from New Age spirituality

April 20, 2017

Cor Jesu Sacratissimum By Roger Buck, Angelico Press, £17.50 Roger Buck, a convert to the Church after decades-long association with New Age spirituality, has written a serious work. It is partly an autobiographical reflection on why people are drawn down false spiritual paths, and partly an appeal to Catholics to practise more of the unplumbed

The challenge of an extraordinary genius

February 23, 2017

Being Wagner: the Triumph of the Will by Simon Callow, William Collins, £14.99 For those who haven’t experienced Richard Wagner’s musical dramas or know about the composer’s life, this book offers a brief, intoxicating introduction. Given that Wagner deliberately set out to capture his audience in an entirely different way from earlier composers – indeed,

The most extraordinary politician of modern times

February 02, 2017

Margaret Thatcher: a Life and Legacy by David Cannadine, OUP, £10.99 For those who haven’t the time to read Charles Moore’s official biography of Margaret Thatcher (two volumes published and a third in the pipeline), this book has much to recommend it. It is short, judicious and lucid, neither leaning too heavily on the side

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