Holiday Reading

Some books I read on holiday on Dartmoor last week:

Philip Sheldrake, Spaces for the Sacred: Place, Memory, and Identity (2001)

[While it often seems to be more about spirituality than place, and several opportunities are missed for making connections between the two, this is an interesting book that starts to explore the importance of place in theology.  As noted in the preface ‘The book is intended to be an exploration of ideas and interpretative perspectives rather than a systematic study of place or an attempt to produce a comprehensive thesis on the subject.  The final chapter on cities was a little frustrating, since I don’t think there is inherently less connection to place in urban environments than rural environments, although the relationship is in some ways quite different.].

Harold M. Abrams, Britain’s National Parks (1959)

Written by the 100m sprint winner at the 1924 Olympic games (and character in Chariots of Fire), who went on to be the Secretary of the National Parks Commission, this book brings together chapters on all ten of England and Wales’ national parks.  The collection has something of an official ‘celebratory’ view, but it is not without critical comment.  It offers a fascinating insight into ways of thinking about national parks in the late 1950s, as well as some very helpful insights into the administrative history. 

Matthew Kelly, Quartz and Feldspar.  Dartmoor: A British Landscape in Modern Times (2015)

It was fun to properly read this book while on holiday in Dartmoor.  In a sense this is three books in one, with the first part focused on C.18^th and C.19^th druidism, the second part on Dartmoor prison and the concept of improvement, and the third part on this history of Exmoor national park.  As noted by some of the reviews, I don’t think the three parts fit together perfectly, and perhaps more could have been done to develop the connecting themes.  But as individual studies each works very well.  I was particularly interested in the third part on the history of conservation on Dartmoor, which has lots of material on the national park, although that’s probably not the focus.  There have been lots of connections to Exmoor, and this part of the book is definitely worth coming back to. 

Miranda Threlfall-Holmes, How to Eat Bread: 21 Nourishing Ways to Read the Bible

I bought this book after Miradna Threlfall-Holmes was interviewed about it on the Church Times podcast.  It’s a really insightful overview of different ways to read and study the Bible and would make a really good book to recommend to anyone interested in going deeper in Biblical scholarship.  In many ways its quite an academic book, and it engages with many of the themes we explored in the Using the Bible Today module at Sarum last term.  A more wide-ranging bibliography for each chapter would be helpful for students wanting to use the book as a springboard to deeper study. 

Stephen Jones et. al, Behind the Lions: Playing Rugby for the British and Irish Lions (fourth edition, 2021)

This was a fun book which I finished after watching South Africa beat the Lions in the third test to win the series.  In general the Lions seem to have struggled, but there have been moments, especially in the 1970s, when the Lions team was truly outstanding (on tours to New Zealand and South Africa).  Much of the book consists of interviews with players from the respective tours, but there are also helpful overviews of each tour.