Shortcuts? There Are No Shortcuts

I wonder if our mental attitudes for getting from A to B alter as we progress from infants to teens and on to adulthood…and then to older-adulthood?

In the pre-SatNav, pre-smart-phone era of my teens, I was the navigator for my mother behind the wheel in our second-hand Fords, traversing the width of England and Wales from Kent and back home on various family holidays.

In my hand, I usually had an American WWII Gazetteer – my dad having been a Colonel in the US Army. It was a superb road map with all the A & B roads and white tracks accurately drawn.

The M2 was avoidable, the M4 hadn’t been opened fully, and the M25 was but a dream (nightmare?) so all but a few roads had remained unchanged.

I became adept at finding the shortest route, even if that meant the exhaust dragging dangerously on the ridge of grass occupying the middle of a minor road. Shortcutting had become a life skill.

Except that, in life, there are no shortcuts. From the Jews traipsing around the desert until a generation of faith and obedience took over from the shortcutters, to most (all?) men ignoring IKEA instructions, or athletes resorting to taking illegal substances to rescue a fading career…we all know the foolishness of taking shortcuts and acknowledge the wisdom of the less glamorous side of life: patience, planning, attention to detail, the slog, adopting a ‘marathon not a sprint’ attitude to life.

I’ve yet to meet many writers who rub their hands with glee when it comes to submitting work for line editing with all the amendments and corrections that ensue, or various steps (e.g. ISBN numbering) before publication…and that ghastly word ‘marketing’…I apologise for even mentioning it. I can feel collective ACW spines shuddering away.

So, here I am, sitting in yet another North Somerset café, sipping a decent flat-white, bemoaning a lack of cooked cheesecakes, with a laptop and time on my hands to WRITE…not slog through line edits, ideas for book covers, or steps towards publication or marketing.

But the passage of time has taught me to be more patient and submit, meekly, to the process.

I’m astounded by the work of line editors (shout out to Liz Carter) who, essentially, have the skill to make our best efforts look as if we’ve studied English Language to degree level – Respect!

I look back to my younger self – always trying to get from A to B by the shortest route in the quickest time – and can still see the joy in it, but I can also see the bodged kitchen units, the lack of revision before exams, the avoidance of emotional intelligence at times, and the fruit of taking shortcuts. Disaster.

No, bring on the horrors of all the writing process, from inspiration and ideas, from ISBN numbers to inventing marketing strategies. I’m ready.

Originally: Shortcuts? There Are No Shortcuts

Book Review: Secrets about Life Every Woman Should Know by Barbara De Angelis

‘I heard a loud sound like an explosion and my car began to careen wildly out of control. One of my tyres had blown…I just froze and thought ‘this is how I am going to die’, then the strangest thing happened…’

 Yes, I hear you loud and clear! Why, Mr Stevens, are you reading a neo-New-Age self-help book for women?

The answer is simple; I borrowed it from a friend who thought I might find it interesting and who made the point that although its primary audience is women, many of the principles also apply to the other half of the human race.

If you’re looking for a book that applies wisdom to the human condition, you will, I am sure, find some useful, even very helpful, chapters in Secrets.

It is tempting, when reviewing a book like this, to critique its underlying philosophy and spiritual beliefs (and I will, later, reflect on this from a Christian perspective), but I’m going to steer this review in a different direction.

Imagine you’re in a cinema, the lights are dimming, and the introductory music for a film is starting. You might adjust how you’re sitting, check your drink and food, offer your Maltesers to your friends, and sit back, beginning to relax. Around you, you are aware of flashing lights from phones being switched off, the noise of a crisp packet, a few words, even the silence. After a few minutes, however, the world around you begins to fade. Eventually, you are so captivated by the film that it appears to be the only reality. You have moved from being an external observer to a participant in its drama. You are fully engaged, absorbed, and reacting mentally and emotionally with the characters and the tensions in the plot.

This, to some extent, was my transition reading Secrets.

At the start, I took notes as a cool academic critic. Later, as various chapters and thoughts matched my experience, I relaxed and moved from analysis to absorbing parts useful to me; the sections that ‘spoke’ to me.

De Angelis employs some positive-thinking aphorisms that made me warm to her message, for example:

‘Obstacles won’t dissolve until they teach you what they came to teach you’

‘To be fully alive, fully human, and completely awake is to be continually thrown out of the nest’

Even Shakespeare – that great observer of human behaviour - gets a mention:

‘We are trampled most often by forces we ourselves create’

De Angelis constructs ‘Secrets’ around ‘Ten principles for total spiritual and emotional fulfilment’ and whilst my inner British-ness baulks at the more flamboyant and typically American ‘Total’ claim, her ten principles form a tight structure upon which she hangs her arguments and wisdom.

(A passing note – I’d love to know if the author deliberately chose Ten to go up against Moses!)

A summary of the Ten Principles:  1. Everything You Need to Be Happy is Inside You   2. The Purpose of Life…  3. Change is Inevitable   4. Obstacles are Lessons in Disguise   5. Make Your Mind Your Friend   6. Fear Will Steal   7. Love Yourself   8. Relationships are Mirrors   9. True Freedom   10. Love is The Answer

Personally, I found chapter 5 very helpful, but not so much chapter 7, though I could see the point she was trying to make.

So, to the Christian critique.

If you’ve spent time in church, you will recognise that all, bar one, of the chapters could be used (or may well have been used!) as sermon titles or alluded to within sermons. Who doesn’t agree that Fear has a way of eroding our confidence and stealing joy?

In short, De Angelis brings much excellent psychological sense, in a very accessible format using great illustrations and life experience (such as the blown tyre incident) to Secrets, but her premise, as outlined in Chapter One, does not sit easily with the Christian perspective regarding the relationship God has with man, and man with God. Her neo-New Age belief in the interchangeability of terms such as God-The Universe-Force, and her emphasis on self-fulfilment left me wondering what she would make of the New Testament, and, specifically, what Jesus tells us about God and His recipe for human happiness.

If being challenged about the human condition, the psyche, or soul, which is undoubtedly her area of expertise, is what you are looking for, I can thoroughly recommend Secrets as a thought-provoking and well-written offering.

But if it’s pneuma (spirit) – a spiritual foundation for life you’re after - the New Testament would be my first recommendation.

Book Review: Joe Marler – Loose Head Confessions of an (Un)professional rugby player, Joe Marler Penguin – 2020

‘One day a coach said about my mood swings, ‘Joe you have the capacity to do good or evil.’ Hi jinks and positivity one moment – making teammates laugh, raising the energy in the room…then crash…miserable as sin, sniping and lashing out. But it wasn’t the old red mist. It was more like black mist. Gloom, despondency. I had no idea where it had come from.’

The Guardian Review comment ‘Very Funny’ printed on the front cover, is, of course, the truth, but not the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Not by a long chalk.

Joe Marler – Loose Head is an autobiography of a great Lions and England and beloved Quins rugby player up until 2020. If he writes a follow-up dealing with the 2020-2025 years before his retirement from Quins, put me down on the wait-list.

I should declare some self-interest. I’m a Quins fan…but have arrived to that calling very late in the day. That story for another day.

I was – and this is slightly embarrassing - loose head prop for Simon Langton Boys’ School 1975/1976 and played appalling poor rugby in the backs for Canterbury Vths and VIths the following year. I was 5’9” and 10st10lbs. An immense threat to…no-one. My short rugby career came to a shuddering halt during trials for Exeter University when I made the terrible mistake of running with the ball…I became the ball…the air squeezed out of my lungs caught between opposition forwards and my lot, all twice my size and strength. I lasted about 10 minutes and left knowing what I should have known all along…I should have been scrum-half…or stuck with golf, or chess.

OK, so, to the book.

Joe Marler has lit up the rugby scene with his outrageous haircuts, cheeky persona on the pitch, and terrible red-mist moments. He has played in one of the most bruising positions in world sport at the highest level representing England in the 2019 World Cup Final and momentous victories with the Lions.

But the absolute joy of this book is its courageous and often, very funny, honesty. It’s not been plain sailing for Joe Marler, the hard man, often bawling his eyes out as he deals with Joe Marler the human being.

Joe Marler – Loose Head takes you behind the scenes into the locker room, dubious initiation ceremonies, alcohol-induced craziness, sharing rooms and lives on tour, naked wrestling with Johnny May, his relationship with Eddy Jones, desperate depression, occasional violence, a marriage to Daisy that very nearly imploded, recovery, and advocate for CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably).

Along the way, your swear word lexicon will be given a work-out and I wouldn’t be surprised if you find the tears falling, but you will also laugh out loud - more than weep, and – Oh Dear! – you will reminisce about your own changing room past, Ralgex spray, the smell of the soil of the pitch, the crunch of battle, and all things rugby - and start searching for your long unused and mould-infused rugby boots.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Joe Marler – Loose Head. Instead of reading, It felt as if the man himself was talking to you, a natural flowing style, but that didn’t diminish the book’s punch, but enabled Marler to articulate all the above – as Joe Marler not as a ***** biographer who knows ******** about rugby, not to quote him, but you get the drift.

Final comment: there is a great collection of b&w photos in the middle of the book that spans Marler’s life from under 5s to 2020.

A must read.

Are You a Filer or a Piler…or a Lurcher?

March 7th More Than Writer’s blog

Filer or Piler...or Lurcher?

I apologise. This is rather hurried. Something in my early morning foggy brain told me to look at the MTW blog, read, and write comments…and then…’O No! It’s the 6th of the Month and I’m ‘on’ tomorrow! Yikes!’

How has this happened?

In my former life as a Chemistry teacher, I attended umpteen Insets, training sessions and professional development courses. Of the umpteen I suffered; I have fond memories of…erm…two. One dealt with the Men from Mars, Women from Venus thing and was surprisingly helpful to such a dense, analytical type like I, and the other was entitled ‘Filer or Piler?’

As with all categories, I seem to lurch from one extreme to the other, so maybe ‘lurcher’ should be added. I do love a tidy desk, sock drawer, feng shui arrangement of cups in a cupboard etc, but I find I can’t sustain this organised approach to living for more than, I dunno, a few days?

And now I am on a strict regime: no bread, no booze for 10 weeks whilst I haul my 67-year-old body towards running the Bristol 10K with a much younger daughter who will bounce round whilst I…lurch.

What has this got to do with the MTW blog, you ask?

Simply this; I have prided myself on writing 7th of the month blogs well in advance, leaving enough time to fuss over the uploaded draft before the predetermined 6am or 7am launch. It seems that lurching has come to infect even this relatively well-organised portion of my existence.

Some excuses: Apart from the self-imposed strictures in the run up to the 10K, I’m negotiating a house move AND I’m trying to write a novel, for goodness’s sake!

Worry not, I will break it to haul out someone’s donkey stuck in a Sabbath ditch

The truth is that I’ve added a ‘1 hour a day minimum’ novel writing rule to my Pharisaical ‘no bread no booze’ discipline. Thus far I have slipped twice in a week. Nevertheless, I feel the wind is with me thanks to having that ‘1 hour a day minimum’ rule, lodged somewhere in my lurch-like interior, calling me onwards. It seems to be helping.

Back to the diet. Worry not, I will break it to haul out someone’s donkey stuck in a Sabbath ditch (or at a forthcoming writers’ gathering in April) and I will break the 1-hour-a-day rule in the opposite direction and indulge in a few binge-writing days where the pen virtually sings as it flies across the paper as fast as those creative thoughts arrive from Who knows where? Well one can hope.

So, in short, to summarise…are you a filer or a piler, or, like me, a lurcher?

And how does this affect your writing? Your desk?

Bolt Hole for Writers – an ideal Writer’s Retreat?

Although, as writers we could be classed as a Collective, I imagine what works as a writer’s retreat for one would fail miserably for another. Utopia is not universal.

Facebook, the blogosphere, and various writerly magazines, are replete with enticing offers of Writer’s Retreats in mountainous areas, wilderness zones far away from traffic, or impossibly beautiful houses overlooking ocean waves with cliff walks thrown in. I’m always tempted.

As yet, the cost has been a large factor in deciding not to succumb…but I might in the future.

So, if one doesn’t attend an organised Writer’s Retreat but is fed up with looking at the same four walls at home, what does one do?

Well, this one has done the following over the past few years:

1 x Hilfield Friary, Dorset
2 x Air BnBs in UK
2 x Air BnB abroad: one in Crete and one in Portugal
1x Sykes Cottages
Bristol Central Library
Various Coffee#1s and other brands

I’ve just returned from a week in Penwithick, Cornwall, holed up in a delightful cottage, and want to share some of the features that I look for as clues that might make discovering that sweet spot of creativity all the more likely.

In order, I look for:

1. A good table and chair close to a window…by far and above the most important and not that easy to find!
2. WiFi
3. Remote…I can work in a city/town/busy coffee shop setting…but, if I’m swapping my four walls, I’d prefer to look out on a garden, a beach, a mountain, or a lake.
4. Heating – joy for me is a log burner
5. Furniture and general décor…I know it when I see it. A comfortable sofa is a must
6. Kitchen – a fridge. Got to chill the white somewhere
7. Free parking by the cottage is preferable

In terms of concentration, I’m 10x better in the morning. The afternoon often is a mush, and I revive later in the evening. If I do any exercise, it’ll usually be a run early in the morning, back for a shower, breakfast, then down to it by 9 if possible. Maybe an afternoon walk/hike.

But writing, I find, will not be confined to a well-organised routine; inspiration is as unpredictable as catching trout.

A few days into this latest retreat, conditions 1-7 all met, and inspiration itself decided to evaporate. Grumpily I gave up slogging a dead horse and drove to Mevagissey for a bracing walk round the harbour, along the Coastal path, and to mouche around the town’s quaint alleyways and shops. Foolishly I donned a thin jacket, and, despite wrapping my neck in a thick scarf, the bitter cold quickly penetrated my bones, and I was forced to retreat to a warm coffee shop overlooking the harbour.

I ordered my standard flat white and a slice of sommit and sat down only to find there was no WiFi available. Grumpier now. But I’d brought an old, battered exercise pad and a pen, not sure why, dug it out, and sat there gazing stupidly at the harbour.

At that point of uselessness and redundancy, inspiration struck, and a poem began to form, or rather, I began to see the harbour at low tide as a metaphor and words began to wrap themselves around the metaphor.

Would that have happened if I had stayed at home in Bristol? No. Or would it have occurred if I’d switched on the tv and stayed in the cottage to watch another episode of For All Mankind? No. But did I need to be reduced to nothing, with no WiFi in a coffee shop? That’s a question that will keep spiritual gurus and philosophers in business all day long.

The Universe, and life in it, does seem to run best on a diet of enriched paradoxes.

Be still and know that I am God – is this the necessary prelude for whatever comes next? Psalm 23 carries the same thought, ‘The Lord is My shepherd, I’ll not want. He makes me lie down…’ everything else in that well-known Psalm follows on, but first, inaction is called for: ‘lie down’.

This is not easy for us Westerners caught up in our futile attempts at meritocracy and external achievement, rather than switching to the better way: grace.

At that point of uselessness and redundancy…a poem began to form

So, there it is. My recipe for a writer’s getaway. But even the recipe is subject to the whims of the human condition and the starting point of stillness whether achieved through personality, prayer, meditation, or, as in my case, failure.

Book Review: Banshee, Lindsay Rumbold, Resolute Books

‘We’ve found out what Banshee is,’ Booth switched her gaze between the two men. ‘Are you ready for this?’
Woods frowned. Alex exchanged a glance with him. ‘As we’ll ever be.’

Flight Lieutenant Alex Farnsworth finds himself ordered to investigate an unidentified body recently unearthed by site developers in a bunker on a decommissioned RAF site in Warwickshire; RAF Martinford. Early in the investigation, it is established that RAF Martinford had been used as a base for testing modifications to Vulcan bombers in the early 1960s. As Vulcan bombers were designed to carry nuclear bombs, Banshee plunges us back into the tensions of the Cold War era.

Published by Resolute Books (www.resolutebooks.co.uk)

All the above is established in the opening two chapters; the sense of intrigue and jeopardy in Banshee builds inexorably from start to finish.

On a personal note, I loved being taken back into the world of these monstrous flying wings and the inner workings of an RAF squadron less than twenty years since the end of WWII. Banshee transports us back to the secretive world of the nation’s nuclear deterrent force, the camaraderie, trust, and conflicts between ground and aircrew, and it all conspires to reconnect the relatively sophisticated twenty-first century with what has and what has not changed in the sixty intervening years. Like many boys, I spent a good deal of my time assembling Airfix models of Spitfires, Lancasters, Messerschmitts, and the American and British fighter planes and bombers of the 1960s and 1970s, including Vulcan Bombers, but this was the first RAF novel I’d read for decades, and it didn’t disappoint.

Rumbold has skilfully interwoven chapters set in 2022, with Alex Farnsworth leading the investigation with the assistance of various experts and the close attention of Quentin Ponsonby from the security forces, with chapters dealing with the events of 449 Squadron at RAF Martinford in 1964.

1964 Austin Healey 3000

Throw into the mystery of an unidentified body, forceful personalities, conflicts of loyalties, an Austin-Healey 3000, and a Rover 2000, hints of a romance, and the role of secret services, and you may think Banshee is an excuse for a James Bond-style romp into the world of post-War international espionage – but you’d be wrong. What you will find, is a carefully constructed story with believable characters and circumstances that retain the excitement of a well-researched Cold War thriller without conforming to over-egged fantasies or becoming bogged down in unnecessary technical detail.

I was as caught up in the tragic events of 1964 with 449 Squadron as I was with Alex Farnsworth’s 2022 investigation with Quentin Ponsonby. I like a good plot and a riddle to solve, but Rumbold’s characters in Banshee also serve as a close study of human beings under immense pressure: their motivations, hopes, fears, and longings are all smuggled into its pages successfully without intruding on the plot.

I’ve only seen one Vulcan bomber in flight; an unforgettable experience as it roared up from low altitude, climbing at 6000 ft per minute leaving the ground and air around me shaking and rumbling and my ears battered. Banshee reminded me of that display of awesome power.

Banshee is published under Resolute Books (www.resolutebooks.co.uk) and is a must read.

The Illusion of Control

https://morethanwriters.blogspot.com/2025/01/the-illusion-of-control.html

This article is my monthly post for the More Than Writers blog which is the blog for the Association of Christian Writers (ACW)

The Illusion of Control?

I do like a good optical illusion. The brain can’t always compute. Perhaps we should rethink the illusion: our brain’s penchant for creating 3D images from 2D drawings, is surely the most impressive illusion?

It appears that the somewhat combative relationship between imagination and illusion also holds true with writing.

I’m sure it must be the case – except for ardent atheists – that even the word ‘author’ is a troublesome term. So many novelists, poets, lyricists, and playwrights are only too willing to acknowledge that their ideas seem to arrive from without rather than from within.

Our imaginations seem to be in a perpetual partnership with an external source. Whilst I still struggle with the ridiculousness that God the Holy Spirit, let alone anyone else, might pay the slightest attention to my writing…when I come to think about it, that is exactly what I believe. It has become my new normal.

Moses had his burning bush. My most recent encounter with an ‘out of the blue inspiration’ was as thrilling as it was pitiful in comparison - an alliterative phrase ‘Dull, dreary, December’ which evolved into a humorous poem with a dash of hope.

But here’s the essence of my question: has anyone else encountered the same ‘heavenly editor’ interrupting your best-laid authorial plans? A few weeks ago I settled down to write the sequel to a historical novel (which will be (!) flying off the shelves later in 2025). The plot was clear, and I had my well-developed characters and protagonist from Book 1, so, I knew what I was doing, I just needed the discipline to get it written.

Two weeks in, a terrible thought snuck into my consciousness, ‘No, John. You are writing Book 3, not Book 2. Book 2 should take you West, not East.’ I ignored this irritating thought and tried to shoehorn its ideas into ‘my’ Book 2…but, like all authors when faced with an implacable editor, I eventually acquiesced and went West.

I conclude, therefore, that I am not in control. A little like using a Sat Nav. I still have the steering wheel, the brakes, the heater, and the sound system…but the navigation system I have grown not only to trust but enjoy. It takes me along unplanned routes.

Book Review: Light Force, Brother Andrew and Al Janssen, Hodder & Stoughton (2008)

‘Who do you know in Hamas?’ Abdul asked.
’I have met with Sheikh Yassin [the founder and spiritual leader of Hamas]’
‘What do you wish to discuss?’ His pirecing gaze was unrelenting.
‘I represent Christians in Holland and the West…I would like to know his thoughts about the Palestinian situation.’

That remarkable conversation between Brother Andrew and the leader of Hamas took place in Gaza in 2001 in the aftermath of the second intifada (Arabic for uprising); the first lasting from 1987-1993.

If I have one critical comment about Light Force it is this: the title. It feels sterile and impersonal whereas the book is all about personalities – the love of God and the person of Jesus Christ. But let’s move on – this is not a book to judge either by its cover or its title. It is a must-read.

Light Force has been a compelling book for (bedtime) reading in the run-up to Christmas. Many of its diary-like pages are devoted to further meetings with Palestinian Christians in Bethlehem and elsewhere in Gaza and the West Bank. It has been a gripping read, particularly so in the current terrible conflict between Israel and Hamas and Hezbollah as a consequence of the attack by Hamas on unarmed civilians at the Supernova music festival and kibbutzim including Be’eri Kibbutz on October 7th 2023.

Brother Andrew is well-known to many Christians for his other book God’s Smuggler which describes his conversion to Christ, and the miraculous healing of his crippled leg, and the subsequent story of how as a young man he dedicated himself to illegally transporting Bibles and Christian literature behind the Iron Curtain (often in a VW Beetle) to persecuted Christians living under atheistic communistic dictatorships in Russia, Eastern Europe, and China during the 1950s and 1960s.

Tension in the book is almost tangible as he finds extraordinary ways to meet with leaders from Hamas and Hezbollah

After the publication of God’s Smuggler, it was too dangerous to continue his travels to the Communist block but by then he had formed an organisation, Open Doors, to carry on the work. His focus then shifted to the Middle East and the conflict between Palestinians and Israel – and the Christian church existing on either side of the national divide.

Tension in the book is almost tangible as he finds extraordinary ways to meet with leaders from Hamas and Hezbollah – terrorist organisations dedicated to the destruction of Israel and the ‘liberation’, as they see it, of Palestine from Israeli occupation. The impressive core of the book, however, lies with his adventures with Jewish and Palestinian Christian believers and the influence he, and Open Doors, has had in strengthening the church in Israel and in Gaza and the West Bank, bringing Arab and Jewish believers together.

Readers of a certain age will remember Yassar Arafat, the leader of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO). Light Force records how Brother Andrew met with him, gave him a Bible, and asked for and secured permission and funding to open a Christian Bookshop in Gaza.

This book vividly explores the extraordinary faith and courage of Brother Andrew – but also of many others inevitably caught up in the conflict. It will take the reader inside the News, away from the headlines to a very different story.

A story well told - and one that deserves to be re-told.

Despite being written in 2008, it is as relevant in 2024 as it was when first published.

Book Review: Phoebe – A Story, Paula Gooder, Hodder & Stoughton

‘One day, Quintus, a cousin of Titus arrived at the house…Titus was attractive in a kind, homely way…Quintus was devastatingly handsome…’

In Paula’s fictional account of life in the church in Rome during the New Testament era, we are introduced to well-known characters from the pages of Acts of the Apostles and Paul’s letters such as Priscilla (shortened to Prisca) and Aquila, Junia and Andronicus, Titus, Phobe herself, and Peter. And others.

Phoebe – A Story is based on three speculative interpretations from Paul’s letter to Romans:

• Paul had commissioned Phoebe (Rom 16v1) to carry his letter to Rome, explain its meaning to the believers there, and prepare for Paul’s hoped-for mission to Spain.

• Junia (female) and Andronicus (male) were apostles

• The evident tension between Jewish believers and their Gentile brothers and sisters in Rome had more to do with Jewish covenantal status than the Law – a nod to New Perspective theology

Whilst the heart of Phoebe is, as its sub-title, A Story, suggests, a story and reads as an engaging imaginative description of life in Rome and is very ably enhanced by the historical research of first-century Roman society, the above three assumptions form the guiding principles that govern the arc of the story.

It is, therefore, a feminist historical fiction, not only weaving a story around hermeneutical interpretations of New Testament literature but also promoting well-argued feminist contentions that all offices and ministries in the church should be occupied equally by men and women.

Phoebe herself turns out to be a far more complex character – with slavery, a dangerous romance, and tragedy all thrown in

Leaving issues of biblical interpretation on one side, the personalities of the principal characters are well-described and engaging. Phoebe herself turns out to be a far more complex character – with slavery, a dangerous romance, and tragedy all thrown in - than the one verse in Paul’s letter has the scope to describe. Paula does this very well and the various tensions that ensue give the book its very readable momentum.

So…if you want to let yourself be absorbed in the simplicity of life in first-century Rome just before Nero’s reign, this is an excellent starting point.

And, if you’re after a book to fire your imagination, dulled after years of over-familiarity with the New Testament, Paula Gooder’s Phoebe will do just that.

Did Paul arrive in Rome? What happened to the trip to Spain? You may find the answers lying within Phoebe – A Story.

PS

Part 2 of the book contains 80 pages of helpful notes on each chapter giving more historical and biblical background

Book Review: The Wisdom of Tenderness, Brennan Manning (2002)

The Wisdom of Tenderness caught my eye as it sat on the bottom step of a friend’s staircase four days ago.

Before I had finished the first page, I knew that it had successfully jumped the queue of books lying around the house crying out to be read next.

The opening salvo isn’t bad either: ‘In the past year, I’ve grown increasingly uneasy with the state of contemporary spirituality in the Western world. It has, to put the matter bluntly, the flat flavor of old ice cream.’

Manning is in a combative mood. But what follows is not a finger-pointing tirade, a Victor Meldrew ecclesiastical rant, but, like the wounded healer that Manning became, he offers his insights, and often at his own expense:

‘In praying for chronic alcoholics, I’m frequently overcome by a surge of compassion…perhaps because of my own struggle with alcoholism…the damnable imprisonment of not being able to quit…the harrowing fear that I’ve lost God…are quickly revived when I pray for an alcoholic’

Page after page Manning dismantles our – and his - self-aggrandisements, desperate coping mechanisms, dissatisfying quests for indispensability, our fears of being found out, and tells us, using his extraordinary gift of translating the human condition into beautifully written prose, that God is tender towards our poverty-stricken spirituality. Towards us.

‘The crux of this little book can be stated briefly and succinctly. In a moment of naked honesty, ask yourself. “Do I wholeheartedly trust that God likes me?” Not loves me because theologically God can’t do otherwise.’

There is an ‘American’ dimension to this book – for example, he deals with issues of hypocrisy within the pro-life/anti-abortion movement which is more of an issue across the pond than here – but the principles easily swim across to our shores.

But, if you’re British and tempted to dismiss anything from America as shallow, brash, and over-confident, this book will be a shock to your misplaced British superiority! In fact, unless you’re willing to be knocked off your perch, not to take yourself too seriously, and hand yourself in for a spiritual MOT, this book is not for you…yet.

‘The crux of this little book can be stated briefly and succinctly. In a moment of naked honesty, ask yourself. “Do I wholeheartedly trust that God likes me?” Not loves me because theologically God can’t do otherwise.’

It is my contention, however, that The Wisdom of Tenderness is for everyone: British, American, Mongolian, Chilean, Russian, French, and all comers. It is shot through with love, tenderness, mercy, and kindness in the face of human failure and spiritual poverty.

It’s not a self-help book, but it is one for those who like John Lennon who wrote ‘Help!’ in response to his out-of-control lifestyle and fame: "I was eating and drinking like a pig, and I was…dissatisfied with myself...I was crying out for help.” I can’t comment on what John Lennon did to self-medicate, but Manning unreservedly points us to Jesus as the ultimate source of the help we all need.

The Wisdom of Tenderness is not a biography, but I add Manning’s Wikipedia page if you wish to know more about the author. He died in 2013.

Brennan Manning - Wikipedia

Book Review: The West in Her Eyes, Janet Hancock, Resolute Books

‘The first movement of the Schumann Fantasie ebbs from her. When she lifts her head, Monsieur Tournon is looking at some point beyond her. ‘Good,’ he nods. ‘Technically I can find no fault…Try the opening theme again. Here is a man who believes he has lost the only woman he can love.’

This is an excellent read and a page-turner. The quote above is a taster.

Perhaps ‘excellent read’ is all I need to write for a book review? Nevertheless a few words will follow:

The West in Her Eyes transports the reader into the turmoil that enveloped Russia during the aftermath of the First World War, the overthrow of Tsar Nicholas, the murder of the Royal Family, and the October Revolution of 1917. Add to that the dismantling of the Ottoman Empire and the reconstitution of present-day Turkey and the scene is set.

All very interesting of course, but I was intrigued to discover how well this historical fiction gathered together partially-known strands and fragments of history and geography into a coherent whole that n years of secondary school failed to do with its dates of battles and maps to colour in!

But there’s more to this book than international intrigue

But there’s more to this book than international intrigue. The tension between tragedy and hope twists and turns throughout the novel via two principal characters, Esther and Anahid. Esther is a young Russian girl, a Jewess, who dreams of playing concert piano maybe in Paris. She is fleeing from the Bolsheviks with her family and meets Anahid, one of the many wives of Mirza Khan, in Tehran.

The desperate political background and the intricately woven plot are sufficient in themselves to make it worthwhile reading The West in Her Eyes, but what lifted this book off the shelf for me was the author’s ability not only to take the reader into the romantic adventures of both women, but also to describe the sights, smells, and sounds of the countries, towns, and cities surrounding the Black Sea such as Constantinople, as they seek to escape, refugees on the run, from a war-torn world; for example, when Esther and Anahid are escaping via a camel train from Kasvin in Persia to Erzerum in Anatolia:

‘On every horizon, purple mountains undulate…the day is as still as eternity, tinkle of sheep-bells floating…the road slopes into a valley of afternoon shadows and the scent of blue, wavering dung smoke. They cross a wooden bridge with no handrails, over a foaming river…ancient trees…roots curled in and out of cracked earth like arthritic fingers’

The heart of the story concerns the fortunes of Esther and Anahid, two women with the West in their eyes, their attempted escape from troubled times with Esther’s parents, and siblings and lovers included. How their hopes and dreams, fears and longings, are sometimes realised, and sometimes dashed, will, I think, move you to the final chapter.

Book Review: ‘The Gift’ by Edith Eger

Edith Eger is a survivor of Auschwitz. Taken there by the Nazis with her parents when she was 16, separated shortly after arriving at the death camp, her parents were murdered almost immediately.

The sub-title is: A Survivor’s Journey to Freedom

Her story is not only beyond heroic it carries authority; she knows what she is talking about. If anyone embodies the overworked phrase ‘lived experience’ she does.

The Gift was first published in 2020 when Edith was 92. Her previous book The Choice was published in 2017, so she hasn’t rushed to the printing press. The contents of The Gift are like a fine wine or whisky distilled and matured over many decades.

Hope is a matter of life and death

Using her own experience of escaping the mental trap of ‘victimhood’, she relates the stories of others facing suffering and various forms of PTSD and how her discoveries enable them to find freedom. She is a qualified psychologist and trained counsellor for PTSD sufferers.

Some quotes to whet the appetite:

‘My first night in Auschwitz, I was forced to dance for SS officer Josef Mengele, known as the Angel of Death…I stood on the concrete floor…frozen with fear…I closed my eyes and retreated to an inner world. In my mind, I was no longer imprisoned in a death camp, cold and hungry…I was on stage of a Budapest opera house, dancing the role of Juliet in Tchaikovsky’s ballet…’

The second chapter is titled: No Prozac at Auschwitz

‘Hope is a matter of life and death. I knew a young woman in Auschwitz who became certain the camp would be liberated by Christmas…but then Christmas came and went…the day after my friend was dead. Hope had kept her going. When her hope died, she did, too.’

‘The key to maintaining your freedom during a conflict is to hold your truth while also relinquishing the need for power and control’

There isn’t the space in a review to list all the people and their traumas that Edith uses to illustrate what she has discovered as the necessary ingredients to find true freedom, but, as she proposes: ‘Suffering is universal. But victimhood is optional.’

Is it a self-help book? Yes. Is it focussing on the ‘self’ and relying on human resources to overcome trauma? Largely, yes. Though, in a typically Jewish way, it is clear that Edith retains belief in God.

In the remarkable chapter ‘The Nazi in You’ where she explores our tendency to slip into judgement, she says: ‘Even a Nazi can be a messenger of God…this (Nazi guard) was my teacher, guiding me to the choice I always have to replace judgement with compassion…to practice love’

Did I agree with everything in the book? I’m not sure that is the right question

Did I agree with everything in the book? I’m not sure that is the right question. I defy anyone who reads this book not to come away with the impression that Edith has discovered real pearls of wisdom to be shared widely.

But, not to dodge the question. No. I’m not sure I would advocate asking someone to sit on top of you whilst you erupt into an apparently therapeutic primal scream as repeatable practice. But I feel as if I am nitpicking.

Is this an enjoyable read? O dear! If you found Ghandi, or The King’s Speech, or My Left Foot enjoyable, then yes, it is enjoyable. It’s not Mission Impossible or Jane Eyre type of enjoyable, but it is engaging, enriching, and a good book to refer to and keep on the bookshelf.

Book Review: Jesus and the Powers, Tom Wright and Michael F. Bird (SPCK)

If the unenforceable pub ban on Sex, Politics, or Religion, as topics of conversation to ensure that tempers do not get too frayed, then clearly Wright and Bird are skating on thin ice in tackling two out of the three volatile subjects.

Tom Wright is well-known for an intellectual and theological approach to New Testament interpretation in its historical setting without somehow losing the common touch. It’s a skill he possesses and has brought once again to this book on Politics and Christianity.

In summary, he and Bird not only argue that for Christians to retreat from politics with either a small p or capital P is as much a terrible mistake as interpreting Christianity and the call of Christ entirely within the bounds of social reform and justice for all. I particularly like this sentence:

‘The gospel cannot be reduced to a this-world project of social betterment. But neither is the gospel an escapist drama for the soul pining for the angelic door of heaven’.

Is the book sufficiently punchy? Yes, ‘I’d say so. It’s not a ‘tome’ at 178 paperback pages. It’s more a collection of well-argued and sometimes entertaining articles stitched together culminating in defence of liberal democracy as the best, or maybe the ‘least worst’, form of government to date, better than the tyrannical reign of totalitarian regimes whether religious like the Taliban, or political like Communist, or fascist dictatorships, or kings and queens.

Is the book timely? Definitely. With Trump versus Harris, our recent electoral swing to Labour, and hotly contested social and political issues like gender fluidity, sexuality, cancel-culture, Israel and Gaza, Russia and Ukraine, China and Taiwan, and the worldwide trades in human trafficking and the millions on the move as refugees (almost exclusively away from totalitarian regimes to liberal democracies), this is a very timely book.

If you’ve never really stepped back as a Christian to consider issues of conscience, and where the limits of obedience to the state should lie, this is a great read. And the limits of fought-for civil liberties such as free speech, freedom of belief, association, and assembly, that we’re in danger of taking for granted, read on!

And, if you are not a Christian but find yourself living in a society shaped, at least historically, by biblical morality and the teaching of Jesus, this is a book for you, if only to consider in a fresh light how we have reached this point in our political evolution in 2024.

This is one of those Stop and Think books.

Is it light-hearted? No, but I did enjoy the authors’ brief foray into the mind and political thinking of JRR Tolkien and the Lord of The Rings and made a mental note to re-watch the DVD set when winter draws in!

This is one of those Stop and Think books

Only one thing irritated me. At first, I thought it was a typo, but as the error is repeated throughout the book, it must have been an editorial decision, an error of judgement maybe, but not a careless mistake. I’m referring to lowercase ‘h’ and ‘s’ when referring to the third member of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. But I’ll leave that for you to judge!

I feel I haven’t done the content of the book justice, but to do so would add too many words. Best to beg, borrow, or buy a copy.

Book Review: Mornings in Jenin, Susan Abulhawa

Jenin, a Palestinian city on the West Bank is the backdrop to this searing and beautifully written fiction; half-novel half-history.

Susan Abulhawa’s book will transport you into the rugged geography of Israel and Palestine and the heart of the struggle between two sides locked into a seemingly endless conflict. Mornings in Jenin examines that conflict from the perspective of a Palestinian writer.

Of course, I have read Mornings in Jenin in the aftermath of Hamas’s appalling and murderous spree on October 7th 2023. I can offer no certainty about the author’s viewpoint on the moral equivalence of Hamas’s pre-planned grotesque action and the devastating military response by Israel in Gaza.

The story follows the fortunes of the Abulheja family, Palestinians…

But to comment on the present war in Gaza would deflect us away from reviewing Mornings in Jenin.

If you are in search of an author who can turn suffering and a deeply ingrained sense of injustice of a whole people, families, and individuals into beautifully written paragraphs and sentences that capture desperation, humiliation, fear, hope, and defiance without ruining love and tenderness and generosity, you should read Susan Abulhawa’s Mornings in Jenin.

The story follows the fortunes of the Abulheja family, Palestinians, forced from their homes in Ein Hod in 1948 by Israeli soldiers and moved en masse to Jenin, a refugee camp on the West Bank. The final chapter is set in Jenin in 2002 in the aftermath of the Israeli military strike and battle that lasted 12 days and resulted in the destruction of property and life on both sides.

I could quote many paragraphs that lift the reader beyond vivid fictional description and well-crafted prose into the realms of poetry and the spirit.

Bear in mind I am half-American by birth, so I take this quote on the chin:

‘Amal, I believe that most Americans do not love as we do. It is not for any inherent deficiency or superiority in them. They live in the safe, shallow parts that rarely push human emotions into the depths where we dwell…the kind (of love) that dives naked towards infinity’s reach. I think it is where God lives.’

or,

‘David cried silently. He stood over his sister’s body…though he made no sound, the force of his grief was strong, hovering over the graves like rain that cannot fall.’

Perhaps the greatest compliment that I can muster for Mornings in Jenin is that, just as it is virtually impossible not to believe that Jesus’ parable of the prodigal portrays real historical individuals, Susan Abulhawa has clothed her fictional characters with such flesh and blood, emotions and conviction, and aging flesh that they come alive as you read the book. You can almost touch them, taste their food, and drink their sufferings.

‘David cried silently. He stood over his sister’s body…though he made no sound, the force of his grief was strong, hovering over the graves like rain that cannot fall.’

Yes, I can, and would, argue the toss about her historical analysis of the opposing Israeli/Palestinian causes but if, like me, you see the hand of God in the remarkable return of the Jews to the land of Israel, may I recommend you read this book; maybe it will cause you to ‘dive naked towards infinity’s reach…where God lives’.

Book Review: Home by Marilynne Robinson

This may as well serve as a double review; Home is the sequel to Gilead and so the setting, a fictional small town in Iowa, Gilead, and the principal characters remain the same.

In Home, the outlier of family, Jack Boughton, returns to live with his aging father, the retired church pastor, Reverend Robert Boughton, and his younger sister, Gloria.

Whereas Gilead’s narrator is Reverend John Ames, a lifelong friend of Reverend Boughton, and revolves around a series of letters written to his godson, Jack Boughton, Home is written in the third person and the action takes place almost entirely within the four walls of the Boughton’s house.

In some ways, this is a re-telling of the parable of the prodigal son. Like Gilead, Home is steeped in scripture and faith-related issues. Jack as a wayward youth, often in trouble with the law, now returns, his battles with alcohol unresolved, as is his family life, and faith. Will he, like the prodigal of Luke’s gospel ‘come to his senses’ and return home in a deeper way than merely geographically?

But the impact of Home for me was one of extraordinary attention to the minute detail of moods, tensions, fear of precedents, hope and disappointments, and moral dilemmas that the author, Marilynne Robinson brings to bear in Home page after page.

It’s a slow burn. Its major emotion is sadness

There are no chapter divisions – it is one long dive into the tension between old Reverend Boughton and his son Jack as they co-exist with Gloria, under one roof. In one sense they are deeply united and tender with each other, and yet there is a constant struggle to close the gap between father and son.

It’s a slow burn. Its major emotion is sadness.

So, why read Home? Why not read a good detective novel where, even if the detective is gravely flawed, you know the crime will be solved? Or a spy novel full of action and courage? Home is a blues novel, left, largely, on persistently unresolved blues notes. It does contain courage but its examination of brokenness includes failure as well as degrees of success.

So, why read it? Because it is brilliantly written.

Book Review: Gilead

𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐥𝐲𝐧𝐧𝐞 𝐑𝐨𝐛𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐨𝐧, 𝐈𝐒𝐁𝐍 𝟏-𝟖𝟒𝟒𝟎𝟖-𝟏𝟒𝟖-𝟔

𝔀𝔀𝔀.𝓿𝓲𝓻𝓪𝓰𝓸.𝓬𝓸.𝓾𝓴

If you’re looking for a fast-paced thriller don’t read Gilead. If you’re looking for a gripping romance, look elsewhere. If it’s an injection of international intrigue you’re after, forget it; it’s intensely local.

And if you’re expecting chapters and traditional literary divisions you won’t find them here.

What you will find is an old-fashioned kettle left on the flames from page 1 until the whole book boils over and sings 280 pages later, its whistle running through you as it reaches an unanticipated climax in the final scenes.

The critic of the Sunday Times said simply: ‘A masterpiece’. That’s what it is.

Set in the small fictional town of Gilead, in 1956, it is written as a long letter written by John Ames, an elderly Congregational pastor, as an autobiographical memoir to his seven-year-old unnamed son, to be read after his death.

He’s not a man in a hurry and will make you long for a simpler lifestyle if life has become too cluttered

There are five main characters: elderly Reverand John Ames; his much younger wife, Lila, Reverand Robert Boughton, a retired Presbyterian minister and John’s lifelong friend, and Jack Boughton, his son.

It’s written carefully, and you realise early on that Reverand John Ames is a crucible for theology, philosophy, meditation, and prayer. He’s not a man in a hurry and will make you long for a simpler lifestyle if life has become too cluttered. His relationship, and unlikely romance, with Lila, is sweetly told, but the triangle of the men, John, his old friend Robert, and Robert’s wayward and unpredictable son, Jack, is full of mature love, kindness, failures, sadness, and tension.

Marilynne Robinson somehow has woven into this book, set in a small town with very few characters, and the two statesmanlike characters closing in on death, a telling commentary on aspects of American society in 1956 Iowa. This comes near the end of the novel and I, for one, found it completely arresting and moving. It took me by surprise and left a few tears running down my cheeks.

‘A masterpiece’. Yes. 280 pages. Paperback. Recommended.

Book Review: Forty Farms, Amy Bateman

𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐨 𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐛𝐞 𝐅𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐲 𝐅𝐚𝐫𝐦𝐬: beautiful photographs from forty Lake District farms, inspiring writing – all the farms are transitioning from high dependence on agrochemicals and antibiotics and towards working with the environment, there are maps – I do like a map.

𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐛𝐞 𝐅𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐲 𝐅𝐚𝐫𝐦𝐬: do not misread Forty Farms as Farty Farms. Don’t do it.

336 pages of sheer delight, it’s informative, honest, inter-generational, beautifully put together hard back a blend of gorgeous photographs taken by the author, Amy Bateman, and text, maps, inserts and a helpful glossary for those like me who drive past farms and know next to nothing about farming.

I’m also a chemist and love the ingenuity of science and how fertilisers, pesticides, vaccines, and antibiotics have transformed yield, health, and productivity. But…and there are increasingly some very big buts – if the soil and the general environment are abused disaster looms.

So, farmers, like many in society at large, are involved in a re-think and the stories from these forty farms have given me fresh hope that we’re not slithering down an agrochemical slurry into an inevitable arms race with the environment, pests, diseases whilst the world starves, and that a return to a sustainable agricultural model is not only possible but underway.

ISBN: 978-1-915513-01-4

𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐞: £𝟐𝟗.𝟗𝟎...𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭 𝐗𝐦𝐚𝐬 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐭?

My website/blog www.unlessaseed.com has had an MOT and service and is ready to hit the road once again with some improvements

Hello!

My website/blog www.unlessaseed.com has had an MOT and service and is ready to hit the road once again with some improvements:

1. Subscribing enables you – free of charge of course - to receive regular updates via your email as articles and blogs are posted

2. Navigating from page to page, blog to blog far quicker and slicker

3. Pages: (i) What is a Christian? (ii) Book/Film/Podcast Reviews, (iii) Poetry, and (iv) Everything Else continue as before but with more focus on the ‘unless a seed’ reference (John 12v24) as a message for the here and now.

4. Writing – currently editing/re-writing an historical novel set in 1799, a children’s book set in a land further than far away…and an accumulation of poems.

5. Links – links to other sites that have caught my eye such as daughter Rachel Stevens’ podcast Believingin interviewing a wide range of friends, colleagues, family members about their beliefs…a cocktail of Christians, Muslims, Atheists…with Rachel’s twist of Christian lemon.

But mostly, I hope that you will at least test-drive the blog, enjoy the content, subscribe, and leave comments!

A quick note about Facebook. Links to www.unlessaseed.com blog posts, poems, and so on, will mainly be made, not on my personal FB account, but on my Christian Writer page: Facebook

And lastly…apologies if you’ve received this message from various sources (email/FB/blog) and are feeling nagged. If so, rather than grumble, please make contact and there’s a pint, coffee and cake, or a glass of wine waiting for you as an apology.

Hope to find you at some point here on www.unlessaseed.com

John

Rachel Stevens’ Interview podcast

Rachel Stevens’ Interview podcast - a proud plug! https://believingin.buzzsprout.com is a must. Daughter Rachel interviews friends, work colleagues, and family members about their beliefs, and about love and purpose. Thus far guests have included Muslims, Atheists, and fellow Christians.

It’s a lively, fun, and serious mix of responses to some set questions…and Rachel gets to add to this cocktail with her own twist of Christian lemon.

Dad’s a fan - biased of course but it’s make your own mind up time!!

Film Review - Indiana Jones, Dial of Destiny

Strap yourself in and enjoy the ride!

A hugely enjoyable film, if quite lengthy. An orgy of chases, intrigue, Nazis, gun-fights, understated humour…the whip, the explorer’s wide-brimmed hat…and Harrison Ford at his AI-enhanced best.

If you’re in the mood for fictional fun…cash in your Oppenheimer ticket and plump for Dial of Destiny.

If this is Indiana Jones's final imprint on our craving to do the impossible and overcome the ravages of time – and time itself – then so be it. But Indiana Jones hasn’t bowed out gracefully, he’s still believable and possesses a level of violence, will, and youthfulness of a much younger explorer. He’s gone out still swinging that whip and makes an appearance as a cranky old man at the same time.

Locations: Morocco, Sicily, London, New York, Germany

Archimedes, b, 287BC, from Syracuse, Sicily, the great inventor and mathematician is a constant presence throughout the film.

Cast includes Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Fleabag) as Helena Shaw; Toby Jones (Tinker Taylor, Soldier, Spy - and Detectorists) as Basil Shaw, and John Rhys-Davies (Raiders of the Lost Ark and as Gimli in Lord of the Rings).

Finally, if you have an abiding affection for impossibly narrow and people-littered back-street car and tuk-tuk chases, Dial of Destiny will not disappoint.

If you’re in the mood for some fictional fun rather than telling historical drama, cash in your Oppenheimer ticket and plump for Dial of Destiny.