There’s a peculiar kind of illness that has nothing to do with the body. It creeps in behind the eyes and presses down behind the ribs. It isn’t caused by lack of fresh air or poor hydration or an overlong breakfast. It’s spiritual, or at least — if that’s too much for polite company — … Continue reading The Swept Place: Why Some Churches Feel Wrong
Category: Places
A Geography of God and Other Small Mistakes
after Helen De Borchgrave’s A Journey Into Christian Art There are some errors, those plush little falsehoods, that sit in the drawing room of the modern mind, sipping tea and nodding along to themselves. They’re not lies, exactly. Lies require intention. These are something worse: assumptions so thoroughly digested that they pass for fact, like … Continue reading A Geography of God and Other Small Mistakes
Glinda’s Bubble: A Study in Benevolent Bastardry
I’ve long held a rather unfashionable view about dear Glinda the Good Witch, and it’s high time I set it down in ink – or pixels, as the modern fashion demands. To me, she isn’t merely a fluttering pink confection of benevolence; she’s the most insidious sort of villain, the one who smiles whilst sharpening … Continue reading Glinda’s Bubble: A Study in Benevolent Bastardry
Sunset Over the Pennines
There are evenings when the world seems to exhale — slowly, like an old scholar closing a book he’s read a thousand times and loved each time a little differently. Tonight, the sun slipped behind the Pennines with the poise of a fading monarch, leaving behind a trembling rim of gold as though reluctant to … Continue reading Sunset Over the Pennines
The Slag Heap of Forgetfulness
In memory of the children of Aberfan, 21st October 1966 Before the Bell Rang There are mornings that never end, only echo. Aberfan was one of them. The rain had fallen through the night — the kind of Welsh rain that softens the hills but sharpens the nerves. By half past nine, the children of … Continue reading The Slag Heap of Forgetfulness
Wording 