A colleague has a West African in-law who recently lost a loved one. It was a sudden death in the home, and when she (the in-law) got there, the property was surrounded by the flashing blue lights of emergency vehicles.
As a devout Christian, the woman was desperate to anoint the dying, but found it impossible to break through the line of first responders. Increasingly frustrated, the heartbroken woman began yelling at the paramedics, explaining that her faith meant she must be permitted to enter the house and retrieve the anointing oil.
“Do you believe in God?” she shouted at them in turn, until one answered her question.
“Yes,” he replied, and allowed her through.
Only later, with the cooling of her grief, did she realise that the paramedic had been Prince William.
Will our future head of state have any more children? As a former royal correspondent – and a cheerleader for larger families – I find myself musing on the question and wondering whether the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge feel inclined to set an example, and if so, what kind.
William’s father, as a committed environmentalist, might frown at the idea of a resource-sapping bigger brood, but what about our present monarch, a mother of four? Age need be no barrier. Kate is 35 and William six months her junior. On one level it is a deeply private matter and unfit for speculation. But the royals are also role models. In a sense, they have already bucked the gathering fashion for only-children by producing an “heir and a spare”.
If William were to copy or even outdo Granny, might it promote fecundity among his future subjects? Or would it simply underline the widespread view that a larger family is an eccentric option now exercised only by the wealthy, the feckless or the religious?
‘Hilarious moment Sky News presenter is caught practising cricket on camera” ran a headline on the Evening Standard’s website last month. It was accompanied by a short clip of yours truly in the studio in the seconds before a commercial break. I had been “caught” by a wide shot which we newsreaders sometimes forget about.
I leave it to others to judge how funny the sight of a middle-aged man bringing his arm slowly down in mimicry of a cover drive actually is, but the story contains a couple of broader truths about the news business. One concerns the merging of different technologies. So a journalist at the Standard watching Sky could see my inelegant impression of David Gower, rewind using his remote control, then film a segment on his mobile phone, before uploading it onto his computer.
The other point is related, but more important, since it concerns the editorial process. Once upon a time a journalist wanting to poke fun at someone would need to elicit a quote to that effect. Twitter has changed everything. There’s no need to ring or, heaven forfend, visit the spokesperson for the Association of Cricket-Loving News Presenters. The quotes are there, in profusion, and – as tweets – of the optimal length every sub-editor dreams of.
The Standard simply took a screen-shot of a tweet by BBC Test Match Special commentator, Jonathan Agnew, noting that my imaginary cricket shot “shows promise”, and the job was a good ’un.
My wife recently sang as part of the choir at our Anglican parish church in a service she described as one of the most unexpectedly moving she’s witnessed. It was to mark the blessing of the plough, on what is sometimes known as Plough Sunday.
Farming families, not all of them regular churchgoers, filled the pews. Hymns included God of All Ages and We Plough the Fields and Scatter. The readings were left to two yeomen family farmers who brought Scripture to life with their wonderful, if endangered, Hampshire burr. In common with many parts of rural Britain, our village is changing as commuters move in and old families die off.
But listening to my wife paint this picture of unwavering tradition I was reminded of JB Priestley’s observation, made after a tour of Britain during the interwar years. He claimed to have encountered some English rural communities where oral folk history allowed inhabitants to talk of events which had happened “before the Conquest”.
Areas of Catholic Herald business are still recovering post-pandemic.
However, we are reaching out to the Catholic community and readership, that has been so loyal to the Catholic Herald. Please join us on our 135 year mission by supporting us.
We are raising £250,000 to safeguard the Herald as a world-leading voice in Catholic journalism and teaching.
We have been a bold and influential voice in the church since 1888, standing up for traditional Catholic culture and values. Please consider donating.