Happy New Year! So… I promised a blog post on Charlotte M Yonge (1823 – 1901) in the year of her bicentenary, and I’ve missed the deadline by three days. Alas. Regular readers of this blog may recall that she was an extremely prolific Victorian novelist, most...
I have promised to blog this year about Charlotte M Yonge. This is not that blog. But knowledgeable people sometimes call her the “novelist of the Oxford Movement.” Novelist of the what? The definitive 1930 history book “1066 and all that” by Sellars and Yeatman is comparatively...
Last month I went to Hull for the weekend. I enjoyed an interesting guided tour round Hull city centre – obviously this is a loved city with a spirit of independence and creativity - but the reason for my visit was to attend the AGM of...
The Fifth Commandment is to honour one’s parents (notably both parents.) “Honour” is not the same thing as either “love” or “obey.” Paul perhaps is extrapolating, when he says (Ephesians 6: 1-3) “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. ‘Honour your father and...
I boasted on Facebook that I was given eleven books for my birthday (thank you very much to the donors!) This is just as consumerist as boasting about any other item I have bought or someone has bought for me, but never mind. Many of...