Yesterday evening I was in Oxford for the launch of the new edition of Smoke in the Sanctuary. It was a pleasure to meet the author, Stephen Oliver, the illustrator, Jack Fieldhouse, and Mike and Mary Lord of Southwell Books (the excellent catalogue is well worth browsing.) Lots of books were sold, I think, and I got my own copy signed by the author.The journey there was pretty awful. Rather stupidly, I took the bus at 5pm, subjecting myself to an extra hour on top of the customary 90 minutes. I had brought my laptop, knowing that these buses now have free wifi, but it was not the most comfortable thing working on the blog in such a cramped bus.
Three of the students from the Newman Society came along as soon as they could after dinner. Among other things, they told me about the society's termly Mass at Brasenose College. I'll post something on that tomorrow. There is so much going on in Oxford's Catholic life at the moment that I am determined to find time to spend a day or two there when I can get the chance.
Also at the launch was Joseph Shaw, fellow and tutor in philosophy for St Benet's Hall as well as being the Latin Mass Society representative for Oxford. (See the Oxford LMS blog and the Oxford Events blog.) He has also created a blog called Catholic Oxford, which is an excellent resource for Catholic history of Oxford, drawn from the work of Mgr Laurence Goulder who was Master of the Guild of Our Lady of Ransom.
8 comments:
Father I would love to buy Smoke in the Sanctuary, is it available on Amazon?
Sharon
Sharon it is listed on the UK Amazon with an extra £1.99 "sourcing fee" and "we'll deliver when available". See this link.
So I think it will be quicker and cheaper to get it direct from Southwell Books.
an excellent book - and quite funny
I read it ages ago when it first came out.
Dominie
Free wi-fi on the bus!? *splutters* Not fair! ;-)
Going by bus to Oxford !! Shows further signs of lack of Green Credentials. There is a minimum of an hourly service from Paddington taking about one hour or slightly longer but avoiding the trek across London by underground, try Waterloo to Reading and change there. (About one and half hours if lucky)
I knew Stephen Oliver some years ago when he was a Novice at Downside and have met him since at Stonyhurst. An excellent person.
It is touch and go - there are three bus companies at least, operating services 4 times an hour and they drop you in the centre of Oxford. Mind you, looking at the train times from Paddington, there is not much in it. This is one of those journeys you could argue about for ages :-)
Is this really a new book, or a reissued book newly illustrated? Surely it was originally self-published some years ago and reviewed in the Catholic Herald, rather lukewarmly I seem to remember? If so, why all this fuss now? From what I remember, it sounded rather offensive
The words in the post "new edition" might perhaps give a clue. Strange that this book seems to attract troll comments. Perhaps it is because it is rather an effective satire.
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