I went back to school last week. This was the third occasion my role as one of the voluntary chaplains with South West Ministry Training Course (SWMTC) had taken me to the lovely city of Salisbury for Easter School (or Lent School, depending on the dates) It was an enjoyable, if somewhat intense and tiring, week. It was very rewarding to see the development, formation and progress of those training for lay and ordained ministry in the Church of England. It was good to spend time with staff colleagues also. While one stream of students focussed on funeral ministry and inter-faith relationships ..read more

Sunday is a day on which I often do something many consider to be important but others less so. The ironing. It is not so much the task which I enjoy (although I don’t mind it) but what I do while doing it – and it passes the time too. For in recent months I have used such occasions to watch some of those classic films I have to admit I have never seen. Wonderful Ealing Comedies such as The Lavender Hill Mob and Kind Hearts and Coronets. Orson Welles in Citizen Kane and the beautifully photographed The Third Man. The challenges and issues laid bare in In the Heat of the Night. Last weeken ..read more

One of the nice things I get to do is to be asked to write book reviews. In the majority of cases, the volumes are left with various marks on those parts which I found particularly helpful (accompanied by a dog-eared turnover of the page). There are, of course, the occasional ones which I just don’t get on with and writing a ‘positive’ review is more tricky. Similarly, people occasionally write reviews of my own books – and most are very kind and positive. There have been a couple of people who have declined to write one, though. One because the story contained characters in a same-sex relatio ..read more

A couple of weeks ago, we went to the zoo. It’s only ten minutes away from where we live and Jane and I first went there some 35 years ago. Among our favourite animals besides the orangutan, big cats and giraffes (alas, no more elephants or bison) is a much smaller creature. Tucked away at the very top of a very bushy, very high tree, sit the usually unseen Red Pandas. Once or twice over the years, we have caught a glimpse of their ‘red’ fur in amongst the green foliage but nothing more. Until… this last visit. For there they were, having lunch out in the open. And what a beautiful animal it i ..read more

Ranting and having a moan is an intrinsic part of human nature. Like most people, I’ve been both perpetrator and receiver of criticism. Like most people, I’ve been criticised for getting something wrong or doing what I considered to be the right thing (I am an ex-public servant, after all, and someone once complained to a bishop about me… I knew I had the bish’s backing, though). And like most people, I’ve both made mistakes and admitted to them. This natural disposition towards finding fault can at times be useful, of course. It can help identify problems or recognise the potential for harm o ..read more

All human life was there. A Saturday evening in A&E is a reminder of how quickly life can change. I was with somebody for whom life had inflicted a change. Other people came and (a few hours later) went. The mother in excruciating pain supported by her young daughter. One or two worse the wear from drink. A woman with a dog bite. An athlete with a sports injury. An older man. A baby. Some on their own. Others with others. Each given the label. Junior doctors out on strike. Ambulances queuing up outside. People searching for a relative. Yet the staff made time to bring around cups of tea ..read more

‘They’re going on our Christmas card list.’ Something we often say in jest about someone who’s been kind or helpful (but not taken literally, it has to be said). It’s that time of year, isn’t it? Who’s getting a card and who isn’t. Every year it’s the same. They’ll get a card; they’re having a letter as well; one more year for them; and no… take them off… or maybe not. The ‘one more year’ group has been populated by the same people for several years now. Remaining there in the hope we might hear from them – which applies to others, of course. And come this Christmas we probably won’t have hear ..read more

To everyone who feels they are different… it is that which makes you special. If you read this blog regularly, it will come as no surprise that this particular post focusses on the publication today of my second novella, called Living the Difference. Set in the fictional town of Eastwood Minster, it is the second book in the Eastwood Story series from my wonderful publisher, Chronos Publishing. The first in the series, Looking to Move On was published just over a year ago and introduced the key character of Matt West, who as a result of a car accident now uses a wheelchair and it was an event ..read more

With tales of pop stardom, politics and priesthood, the Reverend Richard Coles delighted his audience. A born raconteur, there were anecdotes galore about a ‘liveable life’, as he called it. The former choirboy had turned atheist turned member of The Communards turned Christian and then priest. The ‘borderline national trinket’, as he called himself, the broadcaster, the author and now retired parish minister regaled us, making us laugh and, at times, moving us towards tears. He described knowing he was gay in his teenage years and the difficulties and the joys of that then and since. There fo ..read more

Last weekend I was at a Christian Book Festival, Book Blest in the Gloucestershire market town of Stroud. One of several authors there to talk about and, let’s be honest, to sell the fruit of their literary labours. It was good to put voices to faces from those I had come across on social media and in the Association of Christian Writers and to share some of the experience of not just writing and publishing but also marketing, and just how hard it is to get the words out there. Many of those present self-published their books while others have gone down the traditional route, supported by edit ..read more