Contrary to what some parents believe, their children will not be traumatised to discover that Santa Claus is, strictly speaking, a myth. Children are in general smarter than their parents, and only lose their super-powers as they get older. They will often…
I’m struggling a bit. For years now, I’ve been responsible for writing an alternative carol service for St Augustine’s Church in Norwich. I don’t know quite how that happened, but I suspect it’s because if you volunteer to do something…
Next morning, the valley was covered with swans white for purity gifts of the spirit we had been searching the city with lamps rooting out complacency we found the dregs of wine in dusty cellars and people told us nothing…
Read: Swans
To previous generations, flight was a vision of freedom. We looked up longingly at the birds and saw them released from the chains of gravity, able to float like angels on the invisible breeze and get a whole new perspective on…
Something is required of me I stand on the quay as the moon folds itself over the incoming tide Something is required of me the sky is full of rain bells do not ring there are dogs in the streets…
Read: Something is required
Deep in the heart and soul of Norfolk are a handful of places that none but a tiny minority of travellers have heard of. Take Swacking Cuckoo, for instance. Or Mount Ephraim. Or Little London, near Corpusty… If we still…
During our annual stay in Scotland – Aberdeenshire, the Dee and the Cairngorms – we noticed a new feature of the landscape: posters and banners bearing the words Yes or No. Something dramatic was clearly taking place. Not being Scottish (although…
I’ve just read a story in which a man with an unpalatable past sacrifices himself in the most painful way to save someone he hardly knows. Such an act of redemption is one which appeals very much to what is…
Read: Redemption is the key
In the dying evening, when the sun has passed on but its memory remains you stand beside the jousting grounds and listen for sounds of war among the gilded houses The river is out of sight, so too the city…
Read: Shadows
I have a special affinity for St Jude, the patron saint of lost causes. Over many years of writing for a newspaper, and later for this website, I seem to have homed in on issues that to me seem clear,…