Cheryl and Sally in the Long Melford group of churches are starting a book club this month with ‘Under Wartime Skies’ by local author Liz Trenow on the agenda. I hope they may turn to C.J. Sansom in due course. I’m glad to see that he is continuing to gain a place in the radio schedules. I have much enjoyed following the adventures of Shardlake, a lawyer with a twisted spine, who makes his determined way through the thuggish society that is Tudor England. Sansom writes with a zest that is infectious. Anybody who enjoys Hilary Mantel’s works will, sure thing, enjoy Sansom’s ventures into the same period.
Sansom was not always a novelist. Born in Edinburgh, he practised as a solicitor on behalf of the disadvantaged before discovering his true vocation. What was a loss for the law was gain for the reading public. He has a knack of involving his reader in tricky moral questions, as well as engaging sympathy for his principal character, whose disability elicits scoffing from others, even royal others.
We read for enjoyment. But we find that reading, like watching films, can broaden our understanding and take us beyond our local scenery. Being local is important. As G.K. Chesterton commented, nothing is real until it is local. (And the decline and impending demise of local newspapers is a sorry development that is leaving our society the poorer.) But it is alco necessary to be more than local. And this is something we cannot avoid, living in a global village as we do.
We can extend our range by watching Simon Reeve’s earthy documentaries that take us to far-off territories beyond our routine environment. That involves geographical movement. We can also extend our range by venturing into history, with Robert Harris or Mary Renault.
Time-wise and travel-wise, we are trapped. The vast majority of us cannot spend months and years beyond the limits imposed on us by our brief days and homely responsibilities. But C.J. Sansom can help us to glance beyond our boundaries to our own benefit and that of others.
The psalmist had it right. In one of our best-known psalms (121) he spoke of lifting up our eyes to the hills. What we see against a background of mountains looks different when we know nothing but plains. Everything depends on our point of view.
P.S. I notice that Sigrid Conder-Pain, who works as a translator (from Swedish to English), tells readers of the Bolton parish magazine that she is re-reading C.J. Sansom’s ‘Dissolution’ and describes it s one of ‘a great series of books’.
IN THE STEPS OF GRAY
Thomas Gray found inspiration in a country churchyard (at Stoke Poges). His ‘Elegy’ is one of the best-known poems in English. Visitors to the Headcorn parish church website can be similarly inspired by what may well be a unique introduction to a church – a stroll along the leafy church path past ancient headstones to the door of the church and, once inside, a walk up to the Communion rail. A Stuart Townend worship-song accompanies the visitor. The vicar is Fiona Haskett, who also has three other parishes to look after. She likes ‘Top Gear’, and the parish magazine ‘Weald Views’ is a handsome product to grace a stylish website.
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