S Martin's Beckland, Norfolk   The major roads of the Norfolk Breckland (such as they are) tend to avoid the villages, so that places like Thompson are very much off the beaten track and bypassed by both visitors and the [...]

Fergus Butler-Gallie offers a Christmas Quiz   THE EARLY CHURCH Give approximate dates for the Early Church from the options below:   a) 33-100 AD b) 0-500 AD c) 2020- ? AD d) 8 am (BCP)   If the price [...]

Stephen Wilson concludes his series on the Divine   Priest-poet Gerald Manley Hopkins (d.1889) readily acknowledged his indebtedness to St Augustine. In God’s Grandeur he evokes a world ‘charged with the grandeur of God’.  Now, since the Fall from grace; [...]

Extracted from Mary Berry Simple Comforts by Mary Berry (BBC Books, £26).    Double-baked  mushroom soufflés   Pure indulgence in the best way! You can make these simple mushroom and cheese soufflés well ahead of time, then reheat them in [...]

Simon Walsh selects the  pick of this year’s new cookery books   Margaret Costa’s Four Seasons Cookery Book (Grub Street, £16.99) was first published in 1970 and Grub St has done a great service in a golden jubilee reprinting. With [...]

Christopher Smith and Bella are relaxing in front of the TV   Creature of habit that I am, and having little to rush out for in the evenings nowadays, I tend to do an hour or so’s work at my [...]

As Christians we have a duty to work for the preservation of all human life. This quite rightly means that Christians take an interest in matters of justice and freedom, and that they seek to work for the promotion of [...]

Ann George remembers her brother Father Fred George, Archdeacon Emeritus of St Helena   Our mother always spoke of her second son as “Poor Fred”, so much so that Fred took it for the name of his first volume of [...]

Simon Walsh remembers Sylvia Hearn : 23 December 1933-20 August 2020   “You can see her vocation, I’m wearing it now,” said Fr James Elston SSC at the requiem mass of Sylvia Hearn in September as he held out his [...]