"Smoke in the Sanctuary" launch

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.

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