Giles Fraser writes in The Guardian that Not talking about death only makes it more lonely and frightening. “In the absence of faith, death cafes can provide a space for us to talk about what a good ending might be.”
David Walker has addressed the Society of Ordained Scientists. Download his address.
Damian Thompson writes for The Spectator that Here comes the God squad: what the new pope and the new archbishop have in common. “Evangelicals have taken charge in the Vatican and Lambeth Palace.”
Every now and again Damian Thompson puts to one side his somewhat hysterical and narrow agenda and his camp waspish style to produce an insightful analysis.
The six least inspiring words in the English language: “Damian Thompson writes for The Spectator…”
Rjb, have you read it? Or was that a cheap shot? I’m with Martin Reynolds on this one, it was a good article regardless of his past form; on the quiet he’s not a bad journalist when he wants to be.
Today DT is chillingly on the mark, no doubt. His contribution to the Basil Fawlty school of musical criticism in The Spectator is another matter. He hears Nazi echoes in Karajan’s 1962 recording of the Ninth Symphony. I have a May 1944 recording of the Eroica with the Preussische Staatskapelle and it is a brilliant deconstruction of Nazi militarism. Karajan was not the goose-stepper of Thompson’s fantasies.