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Find a book club
Find a Book Club, a club that does what it says on the tin, asked me to recommend 10 books for book clubs (including two of my own).
Author Archives: Angela
In the Bleak Midwinter: Rosetti & Holst
In the Bleak Midwinter – words by Christina Rossetti and music by Gustav Holst (it has to be Holst for me) – is my favourite Christmas carol. I have a memory of singing it as a child beside my father … Continue reading
Posted in Carols, Christmas, Music, Poetry
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A Blessing for our times
Jan Richardson wrote this Blessing for her blog The Advent Door in 2014. It’s included in her book Circle of Grace published in 2015. Elsewhere Richardson talks about wild and stubborn hope. I love that phrase. A friend of mine … Continue reading
Posted in Artists, Books, Creativity, Democracy, Equality, Good Things, Goodness, Hope, Human Rights, Kindness, Language, Love, Morality, Poetry, Politics, Psychology, Storytelling
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Black History Month; Black History Studies and Nova Reid’s Student Confession
October is Black History Month in the UK. But obviously Black History should be taught and celebrated every day of every year in history lessons in our schools, in everyday conversation, in stories, in music and song, in any way … Continue reading
Posted in Allyship, Antiracism, Black History, Books, Equality, History, Human Rights, Kindness, Listening, Psychology, Racism, White Allies
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Tell Climate Change Stories
On last Tuesday’s The Life Scientific with Jim Al-Khalili, the guest scientist was Professor Peter Stott, a senior climate scientist at The Met Office’s Hadley Centre for Climate Science and Services. The biggest challenge in climate science today, Stott said, … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Climate Change, Creativity, Human Rights, Science, Storytelling, Writing
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ORIGIN: Ava DuVernay and Isabel Wilkerson on CASTE
If you haven’t seen ORIGIN – Ava DuVernay’s film about Isabel Wilkerson’s life and why and how she came to write CASTE – I urge you to. If you have seen it, I’d love to know how it made you … Continue reading
Posted in Allyship, Antiracism, Black History, Books, Creativity, Democracy, Equality, Human Rights, Listening, Racism, White Allies
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Language: how it means everything, and nothing
A couple of weeks ago some friends suggested we see ENGLISH, by Sanaz Toossi, at the Kiln Theatre. It’s finished its run now, but if you see it advertised anywhere, go. Toossi wrote the play after the travel ban, colloquially … Continue reading
Posted in Allyship, Antiracism, Art, Artists, Equality, Fiction, Human Rights, Kindness, Language, Listening, Literary Prizes, Plays, Refugees, Storytelling, Theatre
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If the son of a Klu Klux Klan leader can become an Anti-Racist, everyone can
It takes 25 minutes to watch this video. It takes a lifetime to remain committed to anti-racism. But this person’s journey from white supremacy to anti-racism shows us just how essential it is that we all begin that journey. Click … Continue reading
Posted in Allyship, Antiracism, Black History, Equality, Listening, Morality, Psychology, Racism, White Allies, White Fragility
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Antiracism: Student Confessions Series, with Nova Reid
I took part in Nova Reid’s series of Student Confession Interviews after graduating from her deeply affecting, life-changing course: Becoming Antiracist with Nova Reid. The Course altered the way I live my life and transformed my attitudes and my core … Continue reading
Posted in Allyship, Antiracism, Equality, History, Human Rights, Psychology, Racism, White Allies, White Fragility
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Spring: when, exactly, does it begin?
I don’t know about you, but I feel Spring begins when it starts to feel a little warmer and when the are beginning to come out. But according to those who measure these things, it’s not quite that simple. There’s … Continue reading
Posted in Flowers/Blossom, Spring
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I’m breaking up with my shame, on Valentine’s Day
There are studies that show what happens to couples on Valentine’s Day: the less attachment-avoidant among us fare better, as you might guess, and some of us break up. But what if the relationship is between a person and an … Continue reading
Posted in Allyship, Antiracism, Black History, Equality, Human Rights, Love, Mental Health, Psychology, Racism, Rejection, Shame, Valentine's Day, White Allies
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Being kind can reduce chronic inflammation. Who knew?
On 10 January, in Dr Michael Mosley’s series, Just one Thing, there’s an episode called Be Kind. In it, Mosley talks to Dr Tristen Inagaki, PhD of San Diego University whose studies show that being kind improves our immune systems and … Continue reading
Posted in Baking, Gifts, Goodness, Health, Kindness, Love, Mental Health, Mind, Uncategorized
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A Caribbean Rum Christmas Cake
In all my 72 years I’ve never made a Christmas cake. When I was a child I was lucky enough to have them made for me but also, often, we bought them. And I’ve bought them ever since. But this … Continue reading
Posted in Baking, Christmas Cake, Dark Guyanese Rum Fruitcake, Drink, Good Things
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Afrikan Reparations: a conference
On Saturday 21st and Sunday 22nd October, in London, a conference to discuss Afrikan Reparations and to address the legacy of the trafficking and enslavement of peoples of Afrikan descent, of colonisation and colonialism, was held. I went, at the … Continue reading
Posted in Allyship, Antiracism, Equality, History, Human Rights, Love, Morality, Politics, Racism, White Allies
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Black History Month, and David Olusoga
October is Black History Month in the UK, but David Olusoga, historian and broadcaster, and many many others, including me, think it’s well past time that British history included everyone who’s part of the UK’s history wherever it’s taught, read … Continue reading
Posted in Allyship, Antiracism, Black History, Equality, History, Human Rights, Racism
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An astonishing blind pianist
On Friday 8 September we heard Nobuyuki Tsujii (or Nobu to his many many fans). He played Rachmaninov’s Third Piano Concerto at the penultimate 2023 Prom at the Royal Albert Hall. It was a virtuoso performance of one of the … Continue reading
Posted in Artists, Creativity, Goodness, Kindness, Listening, Love, Music
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Flowers from a Stone
Flowers that find their way through stone or rock (or any apparently impenetrable surface) always touch my heart. They manage to flourish in the most (apparently) inhospitable places. I’ve been rewriting a novel I thought I’d finished last autumn. But … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Creativity, Fiction, Flowers/Blossom, Gardening, Rewriting, Writers, Writing
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Independence Day: two dissenting points of view
Independence Day, celebrated in America on the fourth of July, commemorates the Declaration of Independence, ratified on the fourth of July 1776. It stated that the: Thirteen Colonies were no longer subject (and subordinate) to the British monarch, George III, … Continue reading
Posted in Allyship, Antiracism, Books, Democracy, Equality, History, Human Rights, Politics, Racism, White Allies
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Windrush, 75 years on
Seventy-five years ago, on 22 June 1948, HMT (His Majesty’s Transport) Empire Windrush arrived at Tilbury Docks, on the River Thames. She was named, as many empire ships were, for a British river, in her case the River Windrush, a … Continue reading
Posted in Allyship, Antiracism, Art, Black History, Books, Creativity, Democracy, Equality, Fiction, History, Human Rights, Morality, Racism, Windrush, Writers, Writing
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What does it mean to be good?
In a 2013 article by Steve Taylor PhD in Psychology Today, good is defined as: a lack of self-centredness … the ability to empathise with other people, feel compassion … and put [others’] needs before your own. It means … … Continue reading
