Losing the art of reading by Susan Grimsdell
Recent statistics indicate that reading books is a fast-disappearing pastime. It seems that some young people leaving school can barely read at all, let alone read great works of literature. Access to the classics They have trouble grasping the meaning of words and sentences, so to think of them picking a book like Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” or Dickens’ “Great Expectations” off the shelf is laughable. It just doesn’t happen. I remember not long ago a young person won the prize for a critical essay on Harper Lee’s “To Kill a “Mockingbird” and… Read More
The Holy City by Trevor Plumbly
The New Jerusalem I’ve never had much trust in the value of history, but there’s a lot to be drawn from the Bible, especially where politics is concerned. It’s election time down here and the harvest awaits those who still believe politicians control access to the Citadel. Personally I don’t: I lost faith in promises when Spot Simpson’s sister told me she’d never done it before and the school dentist told me it wasn’t going to hurt; these are difficult times for those of us blessed with a smidgeon of cynicism. MMP… Read More
Staying alert by Angela Caldin
I’m living in New Zealand at the moment, but I’ve been following developments in the UK as well. On TV here, there’s an adaption of Eleanor Catton’s Man Booker prizewinning novel The Luminaries. I read this book when it first came out and couldn’t put it down. The only problem was that when I arrived breathless at the end, I had no idea what was going on among the huge cast of characters. It was good therefore to understand from the first episode on TV that two of the main protagonists, Anna… Read More
A long and winding road by Trevor Plumbly
The Pilgrim’s Progress Yep! I’ve read it. Years ago it was considered healthy reading for pre-pubescent minds. Back then, the hero Christian was the James Bond of religious literature, without the totties of course. Like Fleming, Bunyan’s left his mark: even today the waffle-mob still refer to life as a ‘journey’, which is fine if you’re sitting on your arse in a sort of spiritual Rolls Royce, inspired by Christian’s trip to the Celestial City; most of us though, aren’t cut out for the A to B road. The old stuff’s still… Read More
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