Auden may have famously declared that “poetry makes nothing happen,” but in the “this novel changed my life” category, Dawn Eden has a new book out recording her life travel from Germaine Greer-ish rock groupie and feminist free sex-ist to Catholic. And it all began with a novel.
Here’s a snippet from a Sunday London Times [...]

Tags: books, Catholic fiction, Chesterton, The Man Who Was Thursday

I just finished watching the Australian Open (tennis) and was again impressed by the remarkable talent, skill, and finesse of Swiss player Roger Federer. He has a fascinating quality–what John called "guilelessness." He describes himself clearly and accurately. Out of context of the man Federer is, his remarks could sound haughty. But, he's simply and [...]

I’m re-reading Benedict XVI’s Deus Caritas Est, just beginning. But even the opening paragraph strikes me as telling: that God–Father, Son, and Holy Spirit–IS love. He/They not only love; He/They ARE love . . . in Their eternal communion of self-giving.
St. Francis de Sales taught that we must be meek and lowly of heart, like [...]

Tags: Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas Est

Edward Rothstein has a fascinating little article in the NYT on a Morgan Library exhibit of “Victorian Bestsellers.” Rothstein surveys the development of magazine serials into the publishing of “bestsellers” today. He also notes the role these works of popular fiction and poetry played in bringing the classes a little closer together–as with Shakespeare’s Globe, [...]

Tags: , books, poetry, Publishing

Right now, in the bleak midwinter, it is so refreshing to see the website and trailer for the upcoming film Amazing Grace, about the admirable Regency reformer William Wilberforce—it’s almost like a whiff of Spring. Directed by Michael Apted (Coal Miner’s Daughter) and co-produced by Terrence Malick, the film stars Ioan Gruffudd (Hornblower) in the [...]

Tags: Amazing Grace, movies