A book that makes you grateful to be alive
June 26, 2020
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Sometimes you read a book that reminds you most forcibly that almost al our worries are trivial, small niggles that
On both left and right, free thought is becoming impossible
June 25, 2020
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Vexed: Ethics Beyond Political Tribes By James Mumford Bloomsbury Continuum, 224pp, £16.99 Beware of “package deal ethics”. They are ruining
Two good Catholic books for children
June 25, 2020
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Sophia Institute Press has produced a most attractive and original book for girls, roughly of the age range 6-9. It
Who were the greatest popes of the 20th century?
June 17, 2020
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Having blogged about Russell Shaw’s Eight Popes and the Crisis of Modernity (Ignatius Press), I had many questions I wanted
Often it’s the well-educated who are most susceptible to conspiracy theories
June 5, 2020
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Are Catholics more susceptible to conspiracy theories than other people? Yes and no. Yes, because ours is a supernatural religion
A novel that listens closely to 17th-century Stratford
June 3, 2020
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Hamnet By Maggie O’Farrell, Tinder Press, 384PP, £20/$26.95 In 1596, an 11-year-old boy died of the plague in Stratford-Upon-Avon. We
Galileo’s story is more complex than the popular account
June 2, 2020
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Galileo and the Science Deniers By Mario Livio Simon and Schuster, 304pp, £22.99/$22.50 The so-called champions of reason are the
What the Notre-Dame fire did to France
May 29, 2020
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Notre-Dame: The Soul of France By Agnès Poirier Oneworld, 240pp, £16.99/$26.95 I lived in northern France for two years in
How to illustrate poetry
May 28, 2020
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Why would you illustrate a poem? The answer is, if you are an artist and think visually, that is what
A refreshing memoir without the cruel nuns or ‘Catholic guilt’
May 27, 2020
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A Catholic neighbour in our village called on me recently (keeping the appropriate distance, naturally.) She has published a slim
How the 20th-century popes faced modernity
May 26, 2020
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Anyone who is looking for a short, succinct survey of the men who occupied the papacy during the 20th century,
In the field of Reformation fiction, two masterpieces stand out
May 22, 2020
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The Mirror and The Light, Hilary Mantel’s fictional take on Thomas Cromwell – now in the running for a third