Some Thursday Readings – July 23, 2026

 

The Spider Taketh Hold with Her Hands, and is in Kings’ Palaces – Kilby Austin at Rabbit Room Poetry.

 

“Idyll,” poem by Siegfried Sassoon and “There Is a Garden in her Face,” poem by Thomas Campion – – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

Thirteen Ways of Looking at My Mother’s Bible – poem by Megan Willome. 

 

“When I consider how my light is spent,” sonnet by John Milton – Anthony Esolen at Word & Song.

 

Talking about ‘The Nameless Isle’ – Andrew Roycroft at New Grub Street. 

 

A Picture That Paints a Thousand Words – Joseph Pearce at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

Dumpling Pond: Legend, Folklore, and Local Memory in Greenwich, Connecticut – Lisa Figlioli at Journal of the American Revolution. 

 

The Bell and the Blackbird – poem by David Whyte.

 

George Cruikshank’s Summer in London – Spitalfields Life.

 

Eighteen Months, a Dark Teesside short story by Glenn McGoldrick, is free on Amazon today. I have a short review here. 

 

Illustration: At the Royal Academy (1835) by George Cruikshank.

Some Monday Readings - July 20, 2026

Rehabilitating Time: Memory & the Writing Life – Daniel Sundahl at The Imaginative Conservative.

Charity That’s Just Ducky – Annie Nardone at Cultivating Oaks Press.

 

At Waltham Abbey – Spitalfields Life.

 

Want More Babies? We Need More Friends – Robert Henderson at City Journal.

 

“The people here are liberty mad…” Nicholas Cresswell and the American Independence – Rob Orrison at Emerging Revolutionary War Era.

 

Archaeologists Found a 2,000-Year-Old Garden Beneath a Church. It May Be the Site of Jesus’s Tomb – Michael Natale at Popular Mechanics.

 

The Hazards of Public Life – Jeffrey Bilbro at Plough.

 

Up the Hudson and Into the Heart of America – Megan Pidcock at The Wall Street Journal (unlocked). 

 

How a Chance Meeting Gave Me Some Tools to Help Mr. Wild Dog and Rejuvenated My Dream – Katie Andraski at Katie’s Ground.

 

St. Pancras Church and the Loss of the Steamship City of Boston – A London Inheritance.

 

Painting: The Beeches, oil on canvas (1845) by Asher Brown Durand (1796-1886), part of the Hudson River School, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.

Some Monday Readings - July 6, 2026

The ex-Dominion – David Warren at Essays in Idleness. 

The untold story of Brexit – David Shipley at The Critic Magazine.

 

No Faith Worth Defending – Carl Trueman at First Things Magazine.

 

Where Did Lincoln Deliver the Gettysburg Address – Allen Guelzo at The Golden Thread. 

 

Fake World: Everything You Think Is a Lie – Joel Miller at Miller’s Book Review on Philip K. Dick’s The Penultimate Truth.

 

Journey’s Jonathan Cain releases patriotic rock anthem, reveals meaning of ‘Don’t Stop Believin’’ – Leah MarieAnn Klett at The Christian Post.

 

“We Always Leave Things Unfinished” – Alexander Sorondo at Big Reader Bad Grades.

 

St Bartholomew the Less, the Chapel and Parish Church of St Barts – A London Inheritance.

 

The age of Friedman – James Piereson at The New Criterion.

 

Photograph: Author Philip K. Dick (1928-1982).

Some Wednesday Readings - June 24, 2026

Great Americans: ‘We’re Going to Take Back the Airplane’ – Colleen Shogan at The Free Press. 

There Are More than Five POVs – Lincoln Michel at Counter Craft.

 

Murder in disguise – Carl Trueman at World Magazine.

 

“The Moonlight,” poem by Yvor Winters – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

Move Over, Mario Puzo – Dwight Longenecker at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

Charlie Jones, Photographer – Spitalfields Life.

 

A.R. Ammons and arts patronage – Henry Oliver at The Common Reader.

 

The Hardest Part of Fatherhood – Chris Martin at FYI.

 

Writers and Their Houses – Jay Parini.

 

Photograph: poet and writer A.R. Ammons (1926-2001). 

Some Monday Readings - June 22, 2026

If the First Apocalypse Doesn’t Get You, the Second One Will – Joel Miller at Miller’s Book Review on the novels of R.C. Sherriff. 

On the third day: On the religious illiteracy of college students – The New Criterion.

 

Robert Besley, the Clarendon Typeface, and the Longbow – A London Inheritance.

 

McDonald’s is bringing back fried apple pie for America’s 250^th birthday – Colleen Cabili at Quartz.

 

The Surprising Ways Fatherhood Changes Men – Sarah Campisi Hallier at The Epoch Times.

 

Solstice Stories – Padraig O Tuama at Poetry Unbound.

 

When Writers Don’t Respond – Terry Whalin at The Writing Life.

Photograph: The writer R.C. Sherriff (1896-1975).

Some Monday Readings - May 11, 2026

Revolting England – Joseph Pearce at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

Not-so-bookish thoughts about book clubs – Kelly Belmonte at Bandersnatch Books.

 

Serious Reading Was Always a Minority Sport – Joel Miller at Miller’s Book Review.

 

Back When the Pulitzer Meant Something – Liel Leibovitz at The Free Press.

 

When You Hear Crickets – Terry Whalin at The Writing Life.

 

The Spitalfields Roman Woman – Spitalfields Life.

 

The Royal Festival Hall at 75 – A London Inheritance.

 

The Gratitude Shift – Melissa Edgington at Your Mom Has a Blog.

 

Photograph by Clay Banks via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Monday Readings - March 30, 2026

The Death of Rabelais – Benjamin Myers reviews the play by Jane Scharl at Fare Forward. 

Dostoevsky is blunt and dreary – so why has he gone viral? – Henry Oliver at The Times of London.

 

There is a House in New Orleans – James Tylor Foreman at The Metaphor.

 

Substack Has Revived the Serial Novel – A.A. Kostas at Compact.

 

Britain: The revolt against the public – Holly Marshall at The Critic Magazine.

 

It Only Takes One – Terry Whalin at The Writing Life.

 

Late 20^th Century Sculptures in the City of London – A London Inheritance.

 

Belief and wonder – Padraig O Tuama at Poetry Unbound.

Illustration: Francois Rabelais (1482/1494-1553).

Some Monday Readings

Publishing’s Little Secret: It’s All Gambling – Joel Miller at Miller’s Book Review.

Nothing is more practical than falling in love – Joy Clarkson (Hat tip: Amelia Friedline). 

 

John Dempsey’s Street Portraits – Spitalfields Life.

 

Everyone Gets Rejected – Terry Whalin at The Writing Life.

 

The View from the Garden at 120 – A London Inheritance.

 

The Good Shepherd – short story by Jason Clark at This Is the Day.

 

Paul Kingsnorth’s Against the Machine – Churck Chalberg at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

Top: The cover of Against the Machine by Paul Kingsnorth.

Some Wednesday Readings

The Nobody Inn and Radical and Dissenting Newington Green – A London Inheritance. 

Warch Pakistan Closely: The Other Front in the Iran Crisis – John Spencer at Urban Warfare. 

 

Why Movies Suck – Andrew Klavan at The New Jerusalem.

 

In Praise of Poetry and Form – Steven Knepper at Kirk Center.

 

British Culture Under Attack – By Its Curators – Joanna Williams at City Journal.

 

Saint Patrick’s Breastplate – Anthony Esolen at Word & Song.

 

Splendour of Fire, Speed of Lightning: Learning from St. Patrick – Paul Kingsnorth at The Abbey of Misrule.

 

“We had a great time here on St. Patrick’s Day” – Bert Dunkerly at Emerging Civil War.

 

St. Patrick – a sonnet by Malcolm Guite.

 

A Booster Dose of COVID White Pills – Yuri Bezmenov at How to Subvert Subversion.

 

Photograph: Statue of St. Patrick by Rashmi via Unsplash. Used with permission.

"The Last Bookshop in London" by Madeline Martin

Grace Bennett travels to London with her best friend Viv. The two young women are determined to leave their small town behind and find work in the big city. They already have a place to live – with the best friend of Grace’s deceased mother. And it’s their landlady who helps Grace find a job – with an East End bookseller who doesn’t seem to want the help.  

And Grace knows nothing about books; she’s not even a regular reader. But she does know marketing, and she will soon set about transforming the bookstore, even if it’s not one of the better know bookshops like those on Paternoster Row near St. Paul’s Cathedral.

 

But it’s August 1939. War is declared within less of a month of the women’s arrival. They watch the children transported to safety in the countryside, the sandbags being positioned, the rules and regulations for blackout curtains and lights. At first, little changes; the first nine months are often referred to as the “phony war.” After France surrenders in June of 1940, they all know the Germans will be coming for London and Britain. 

 

Madeline Martin

Grace meets a rather charming customer who suggests she read The Count of Monte Cristo. She puts it off until she hears he’s being assigned for duty. She soon finds that books aren’t just about marketing but also about visiting and becoming part of entirely new worlds. And she can’t wait to share what she knows with the customer, assuming he survives the war. So she finds another way to share what she’s reading – during the great London Blitz.

 

The Last Bookshop in London by Madeline Martin is Grace’s story. Based on what happened in London during the famous Blitz, it’s a story of resilience, bookstores, books, and the courage to keep going on in spite of what look like insurmountable conditions. 

 

Martin has published more than 40 books in the historical novel and historical romance genres. Her series includes Borderland Ladies (six books), Borderland Rebels (five books), Highland Passions (four books), Wedding a Wallflower (several series), Matchmaker of Mayfair (six books), The London School for Ladies (three books), Heart of the Highlands (three books), and The Mercenary Maidens (three books), as well as several standalone works. She lives in Florida with her family.

 

Some Monday Readings

 

“Managerial Bureaucracy’s Threat to Democracy and Humanity” – speech by N.S. Lyons at the Civitas Canada Conference., May 3, 2025.

 

St. Louis Art Museum, Nighttime – photographs by Chris Naffziger at St. Louis Patina.

 

The lost palaces of Henry VIII – Monica Woods at Discover Britain.

 

The decline of the great literary name – Jacob Phillips at The Critic Magazine.

 

How “Puff (The Magic Dragon)” Transformed into a Timeless Treasure – Jason Clark at This Is the Day.

Some Thursday Readings

One of the main characters of my new novel Brookhaven has been a major admirer of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow since he was a child. It’s unusual, because the character is born and raised in Mississippi, and abolitionist Mr. Longfellow was not a popular poet. And Longfellow’s poems, in fact, play a not insignificant role throughout the entire book. 

We recently rewatched the Angel Films movie “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day,” which tells the story of Longfellow and his family during the Civil War, and how he came to write the poem that became the Christmas carol. The movie takes only minor liberties with the real story. Some years back, Meg Groeling at Emerging Civil War told that story, and it’s every bit as fascinating as the movie.

 

The Other Christmas Truce – Joanna Guldin at Military.com.

 

The Cross and the Machine – Paul Kingsnorth at The Free Press.

 

York Buildings Stairs and the Watergate – A London Inheritance.

 

The Bard at Christmas – Jaspreet Singh Boparai at The Critic Magazine.

 

Boat Prayer – Karla Van Vliet at Every Day Poems.

 

“In the Bleak Midwinter,” poem by Christina Rossetti – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

The First Noel – poem by Seth Lewis. 

 

Hell by the Acre: A Narrative History of the Stones River Campaign, November 1862-January1863 by Daniel Masters – review at Civil War Books and Authors.

 

Photograph: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow about 1860.

The Journalists' Prayer

St. Bride’s Church in London’s Fleet Steet is known as the “Journalists’ Church.” The church and the area around it have a long history with writers, publishing, printing, and newspapers. But it’s history – the newspapers that once occupied the buildings of Fleet Street are long gone, absorbed into other newspaper or moved to other locations. 

British journalism grew up here for a simple reason: the first printing press with moveable type was brought to the area in 1500, and the printing (and later the newspaper business) grew up around it. But a church had occupied the site since about 500 A.D.; the current St. Bride’s was completely rebuilt in the late 1950s to restore what had been destroyed during the German Blitz of December 1940.

To continue reading, please see my post today at Dancing Priest.

 

Some Wednesday Readings

 

The Governor is Calling – Brian Miller at A South Roane Agrarian. 

 

Why Christian Culture is Essential to Our Education – Ian Pace at The Critic Magazine.

 

Israel’s Iran Strike – and Washington’s Strategic Weakness – Niall Ferguson at The Free Press.

 

Footsteps at St. Bride's

During a recent trip to England, we took advantage of our trip coinciding with London Open House, two successive weekends where citizens and tourists alike can view many buildings usually closed to the public, or take walking tours, or get behind the scenes views of many places that are open to the public.  

One of the places we visited was St. Bride’s Church on Fleet Street, known as “the journalists’ church.” Fleet Street as the home to Britain’s big newspapers is a memory; the newspapers and the journalists moved to other parts of the city decades ago. But St. Bride’s remains, and it’s still known as the place where journalists worshipped. 

To continue reading, please see my post today at Dancing Priest. 

Photograph: Interior of St. Bride's Fleet Street, London. 

Some Wednesday Readings

 

Murder on the Corner of Brīvības and Stabu Streets – Lawrence Bostic III at Real Clear History.

 

Liturgy and Literature in the Middle Ages – Joseph Pearce at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

“All Hallows Night,” poem by Lizette Woodworth Reese – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern. 

The Anonymous Spot with an Incredible History

If you like Brutalist architecture, and I don’t, an excellent example of it is the U.K. Ministry of Justice Building in London. It’s located near Buckingham Palace, where the streets of Petty France and Broadway converge. I’ve passed the building dozens if not hundreds of times, on my way to and from the St. James’s Park tube station. It’s right around the corner from where we stay when we visit London.

The complex was designed by Sir Basil Spence, a celebrated architect associated with the Modernist / Brutalist style (some call it the Soviet style). In fact, Spence has a plan to replace most of the government buildings in Whitehall with buildings like this one. Fortunately, the plan never became reality, except for this building which at its top resembles Darth Vader. At least Darth Vader had a personality.

To continue reading, please see my post today at Dancing Priest.

Some Wednesday Readings

 

We Are in a Writing Renaissance – San Kahn at Compact Magazine.

 

Fall – artwork by Sonja Benskin Mesher.

 

Twilight of the Hacks – Fred Skulthorp at the Critic Magazine.

 

"Death, Adjourned" by Simon Michael

Times have changed rather dramatically for barrister Charles Holborne. The Kray twins, London’s premier gangsters of the 1960s, are behind bars, and better still, they were tricked into giving up the hold they had over Charles. He’s proposed to Sally, his girlfriend, and the wedding appears to be sooner rather than later. He’s even thinking about becoming Queen’s Counsel, or “taking silk,” as the British call it. Not bad for a Jewish boy who grew up rough and tumble in the East End. 

A wealthy building developer and his son are accused of forcibly removing tenants in the path of a new housing development project. One tenant, in fact, was itched though a second-floor window, bundled up in the back of truck, and taken away. A local thug has admitted to participating under the direction of the developer’s son. And the developer calls upon Charles to defend them both.

 

The case is more complicated than it looks. The developer is a survivor of Auschwitz, as is his wife. The son is borderline autistic (although this is earlier than autism becoming an official diagnosis). A crooked policeman is involved. And neither of Charles’s clients are telling him the complete truth, as if they’re protecting someone else. Did they really do what they’re accused of? Or are they being framed?

 

Simon Michael

Death, Adjourned is the 9^th Charles Holborne legal suspense novel by British author Simon Michael, and it’s a welcome addition to the series as well as something of a departure. For once, the specter of the Kray twins doesn’t overhang the story. There’s a hint they may play a role in the future, but for now, the murderous Krays are safely behind bars, their criminal empire being divided up and fought over.

 

Michael studied law at Kings College, London University and was called to the Bar in 1978. He worked primarily in the field of criminal law until the late 1990s, when he focused his practice on clinical negligence. He began writing in the 1980s and resumed it when he retired from legal practice.

 

Death, Adjourned is a riveting story. Michael knows exactly how to build suspense to fever pitch and throw in significant courtroom drama along the way. And here’s hoping for No. 10!

 

Related:

 

My review of The Brief by Simon Michael.

 

My review of An Honest Man by Simon Michael. 

 

My review of The Lighterman by Simon Michael.

 

My review of Corrupted by Simon Michael.

 

My review of The Waxwork Corpse by Simon Michael.

 

My review of Force of Evil by Simon Michel.

 

My review of The Final Shot by Simon Michael.

 

My review of Nothing But the Truth by Simon Michael. 

 

Some Monday Readings

 

E.O. Hoppe’s Londoners – Spitalfields Life.

 

481 – artwork by Sonja Benskin Mesher. 

 

An Enduring Song: Remembering A Canticle for Leibowitz – Bethel McGrew at Miller’s Book Review.

 

This Fiction Business: Revisiting the wisdom of the king of the pulps – Frank Theodat at Ink & Grit: Masters of Pulp Fiction. 

 

Winners and Losers – Brian Miller at A South Roane Agrarian.

"Dickensland" by Lee Jackson

In the last 12 years, I’ve visited the Charles Dickens Museum on Doughty Street in London five times. I tried when we visited the city in 2012, but it but was closed for remodeling, during the 200^th anniversary of his birth, no less. In addition to the museum visits, I’ve done a few walks suggested by various guidebooks and maps where you can see what little might be left of the London known and chronicled by Dickens. Some years back, I joined the Dickens Fellowship, a worldwide association founded in 1902 who “share a common interest in the life and works of Charles Dickens.”  

It turns out, I follow in a long line of literary tourists, beginning as early as 1865 (five years before the author died) when a friend guided Louisa May Alcott on a tour of sites associated with Dickens. For fans, of which I number myself, the difference between a real site like the house on Doughty Street and the Thames River stairs where Nancy is overheard ratting on Bill Sykes in Oliver Twist is not one of reality versus fiction. Of course it’s fiction. Except when you actually find it.

 

Lee Jackson, novelist, historian, and academic advisor to the Dickens Museum, knows the real and imagined passions of literary tourists well. In Dickensland: The Curious History of Dickens’s London, he tells the story of literary tourism and Charles Dickens. For a fan of Dickens, it’s both informative and great fun. For people who aren’t fanatics about the subject, it’s a carefully researched and fully documented history of a phenomenon associated with Dickens and perhaps only other author – William Shakespeare.

 

Jackson explains that the most avid literary tourists happen to be those from North America (I’m in good company). It was American touristsm in fact, who provided the impetus for what is known today as “The Old Curiosity Shop” to accept its fate and become actually that. It was originally an art gallery, and while Dickens might have seen it, it was never the inspiration for the book. 

 

Lee Jackson

Dickensland takes you on its own tour, identifying the major sites of Dickens tourism and explaining what connection they did (and didn’t) have. You discover cemeteries, haunted bridges, “great rambling queer old places,” and much more. The author also provides some history of the Dickens Fellowship, how it helped bring the Dickens Museum into existence, and what the museum itself has looked like over the years, including the renovation in 2012 that temporarily closed the place.

 

Jackson received his doctorate degree from Royal Holloway University of London. He’s written novels, anthologies, and non-fiction books, including A Dictionary of Victorian London (2006), Walking Dickens’ London (2012), Dirty Old London (2014), and Palaces of Pleasure (2019). 

 

Dickensland is a treat for the literary tourist and an entertaining read for those who simply enjoy the works of the man. I count myself fortunate to be both.

 

Related:

 

A Week of Dickens: Resources on His Life, Works, Walks, and London.

 

Some Monday Readings

 

“Willing to be Useful to His Country”: Robert Q. Shirley of Vicksburg, Mississippi – Jeff Giambrone at Emerging Civil War.

 

At 200 Years Old, the London National Gallery is Redefining What It Means to Be a ‘National’ Museum – Ann Wallentine at Smithsonian Magazine.

 

Salman Rushdie Writes Back – Joel Miller at Miller’s Book Review.

 

“In the Shadow of St. Paul’s Cathedral” by Margaret Willes

The first time I was in St. Paul’s Churchyard was May of 1983. My wife and I had traveled to London to celebrate our 10^th wedding anniversary. On a Sunday afternoon, she was resting in our hotel room, and I’d hopped a tube train to visit the newly opened Museum of London before walking around St. Paul’s a few blocks to the south. At 3 p.m., I was standing in front of St. Paul’s when the church bells began to peal. It was one of those “just stop and listen moments.” 

Last fall, we were once again in the churchyard, visiting the Temple Bar exhibition just to the north of the church, and then a few days later we toured the cathedral itself. We walked around the churchyard, visited a gift and souvenir shop, and took our “standing in front of the cathedral” tourist photos. We knew the basic history of the cathedral – Sir Christopher Wren rebuilt the church followed its destruction in the Great Fire of 1666. And we knew that the area around the church had been heavily bombed during World War II; the church itself took one major hit but was protected by the firewatchers stationed on the roof and nearby.

 

But the area around the church has a long and momentous history, as writer Margaret Willes details in In the Shadow of St. Paul’s Cathedral: The Churchyard that Shaped London. The history of the area is inevitably linked to the history of the church, but also to much more.

 

In medieval times, the yard was host to speeches and sermons. The Reformation, Counter-Reformation and New Reformation were argued and fought here. The yard witnessed a few executions. Once the printing press was invented, printers set up shop in this area, mostly printing religious tracts and documents. They eventually evolved into book printers and publishers, both in St. Paul’s Churchyard and nearby Paternoster Row. Publishers branched out into selling books directly to the public, becoming the cradle and center of Britain’s book publishing industry.

 

Willes tells this fascinating history well. The chapters on the Great Fire (and how printers thought they could secure their stocks inside the church itself) and the rebuilding by Wren are especially good. She provides detail in just the right amounts. The people come alive, and their stories become the stories of the churchyard. 

 

Margaret Willes

Willes is the former publisher at the National Trust who now writes books on cultural and botanical history. Her works include Liberty over London Bridge, The Curious World of Samuel Pepys & John Evelyn, The Gardens of the British Working Class, The Making of the English Gardener, Reading Matters Five Centuries of Discovering Books, The Domestic Herbal, and Scenes from a Georgian Life.

 

The story of St. Paul’s Churchyard ends when the thriving society and industry around it ended – with the blitz of World War II. Other than the cathedral itself, much of the surrounding area was destroyed. But as Willes tells it, what had been there was a wonder.

 

Related:

 

Margaret Willes on The Shadow of St. Paul’s Cathedral – interview with Aspect of History.

 

In the Shadow of St. Paul’s Cathedral – Margaret Willes (1666) – podcast at Travels Through Time. 

 

Top photograph: The interior dome of St. Paul’s Cathedral. 

 

Some Monday Readings

 

What New York Times Columnist Paul Krugman Gets Wrong about Rural America – Wendell Berry at Barn Raiser.

 

“We Are Wrong” – a poem on Israel by Michael Vanyukov at Society of Classical Poets.

 

Why Did West Point Remove ‘Duty, Honor, Country’ From Its Mission Statement? – John Lucas at The Federalist.