MY WRITING LIFE

See last month’s on https://revandybooks.org/2024/09/03/newsletter-8-24/

SEPTEMBER 2024

WRITING AND READING

I did some writing but a lot more reading. Reading: I read a doorstopper of a book called ‘Dominion’ by Tom Holland, about how Christianity has shaped the Western mind. I intend it to be the topic of my next blog. Writing: Molly revising my next book.

‘The Future is Titchmarsh’ – probably the easiest blog I’ve put out.  Because I sent the draft to the churchwarden Julia and got lots of excellent comments back.  Collaboration is an excellent thing!

‘The Church has a Past – has it got a Future?’  Instead of a content editor, my publisher https://filamentpublishing.com Chris mentioned having a ‘beta’ reader, someone who will read it and comment. As it turns out, I now have four ‘beta’ readers – an atheist, an evangelical, a political activist and a QC.  Working through all their comments will be a lot of work and incredibly helpful.  I already spent six hours with one of them, a friend Steve, doing basic revision. 

I revised my chapter on the Trinity, ‘God in 3D’, and have at last made some headway with the Introduction and Conclusion for Part 3, ‘Being Credible in the Post-Modern World’.

My publisher Chris and Ana and I had a very helpful lunch meeting; the book design will be done in-house.  This is necessary because my former excellent book and cover designer carelessly went and got himself ordained; he is now a curate in Sussex.  I have got photos to use on the cover.  One is a piece of computational art I saw in the V&A; it is called ‘New Deity’.  

CHURCH

On 24th July a public commissioning  of seven men took place in St Helen’s Bishopgate to provide Christian leadership in Anglican churches which see themselves as out of fellowship with the bishops, because of optional prayers for same-sex couples, and  are seeking alternative episcopal oversight.  HTB is part of this ‘Alliance’.  It made me think again about my church commitment, and I have decided to hang my hat at several different local churches including St Cuthbert’s and St Mary Abbots as well.

I will continue to lead the small fortnightly Zoom discussion group.  We are ploughing through Romans now.  Anybody is welcome to join.  We meet from 7.30 to 8.30 on Tuesday or Wednesday.  Just drop me an email if you are interested.

EDINBURGH

On 13th I joined fifty five members of the Anglican Lutheran Society https://www.anglican-lutheran-society.orghttps://www.anglican-lutheran-society.org for its biennial conference.  We stayed at the Premier Inn just round the corner from the Episcopal Church of St John with excellent facilities.  There were fascinating talks about the  historical experience of the various churches in northern Europe and Britain.   A key moment was the Augsburg Confession of 1530 which gave the basis of Lutheranism.  By 1555 it was agreed that the ruler of any particular German territory (of which there were over 300 before the Napoleonic wars) decided which of the two churches, Catholic or Lutheran, would be the official one.  So the Palatinate changed religion nine time between 1547 and 1709. And in the 19th century the King of Bavaria, though a Roman Catholic, was also head of the Lutheran church there.

When the conference ended several of us went sight-seeing, visiting the Royal Yacht Britannia.  I then saw the National Gallery of Scotland which had some amazing  paintings, and Holyrood House – a palace two hundred years older than Buckingham Palace.  On my last day I went to the best bookshop in Edinburgh, Toppings, and showed them my ‘Daily Prayers from the World’s Faiths’.  They said they would take “a small stack.”  Yes!

CAMBRIDGE

IThen  took the train to Cambridge.  I sat with a family going down to London to see the boxing at Wembley; and they bought my ‘Daily Prayers’!  

I stayed with my brother Martin and went to the British Christian Writers Conference on Saturday.  I heard some helpful talks about the process of publishing and getting presence on social media.  Someone said they found the best time for posting was three times at 9pm midweek.  And two people bought the audio version of ‘Jesus the Troublemaker’.   And I bought a book to read to Linda at home. So, reading and writing.

Sunday was church with Martin and Ros followed by lunch at their golf club.  I had an intense discussion with their friend Malcolm who gave me an idea for another book: ‘The Story of my Faith’.  A good idea, but I’ve got to finish my present one and then the history of Hackbridge parish which has been done up to 1980.

MUSIC AND FILM

5 Proms – www.bbc.co.uk/proms

3 which were, for me, so-so:  Bruckner, Henry Mancini and a French programme.  Two outstanding ones:  Tchaikovsky 6th and Mendelssohn’s ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream’, semi-staged with dozens of fairies, plus Titanic and Oberon and an amazing Puck; (he turned a somersault in the air on his entrance). 

Film and TV –

best film was ‘Sing Sing’ about prisoners putting on a play in the famous New York ‘correctional facility’ – all bar one actors were inmates or former inmates; it was the opposite of depressing.  Also ‘The Outrun’ – a film of a young woman’s memoir about her struggles with alcohol and addiction in the Orkneys.  On TV we watched the crime series ‘Sherwood’ – gripping.  

Theatre.

We saw ‘The Silver Cord’ at our local fringe theatre, the Finborough.  A passionate play about a mother’s neurotic need to live through her two sons whatever the cost.  In Edinburgh I saw ‘Come From Away’, a brilliant musical about a small Newfoundland community who welcomed thousands of stranded airline passengers after 9/11.  Linda had already seen it and loved it.

More music.  In Edinburgh I saw a wonderful quartet of Scottish women fiddlers playing traditional music, and in Cambridge heard a great jazz quartet concert in church.  And on the last Sunday of the month a wonderful Bach Vespers with a particularly long cantata with a striking oboe part.

WEDNESDAY SAINTS 

The weekly reflection and prayer on a saint of the week continues every Wednesday at 10.00 a.m.  It lasts half an hour, followed by half an hour coffee and chat – on Zoom.  Last month we remembered 

• Gregory the Great, 540 – 604.  He sent missionaries to the pagan English, saved Rome from the Lombards, and created the best papal title: ’Servant of the servants of God’
• Holy Cross Day – discovery of the true Cross in Jerusalem plus building of ’the Church of the Holy Sepulchre / Church of the Resurrection’.
• John Patteson, 1827 – 1871, Bishop and martyr in the South Pacific
• Wilson Carlile, 1847 – 1942, trombone evangelist and founder of the Church Army

If you would like to join us one Wednesday, drop me an email and I will send you the link.