Christopher Howse



Profile:
Full name: Christopher Howse

Area of interest: Religion and Society

Journals/Organisation: The Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Telegraph

Email:

Personal website:

Website: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/christopherhowse/

Blog: http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/culture/author/christopherhowse/feed/

Representation:

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Biography:
Education:

Career: Joined The Daily Telegraph in 1996 as obituaries editor, now writes leaders, features, reviews and two columns, Sacred Mysteries and Word of the Week; he also has a blog: On language, which focuses on the changing use of language

Current position/role: Letters editor, columnist, reviewer


 * also writes/written for:

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Disclosures:

Viewpoints/Insight: Why we spend sermons looking at our watches, The Catholic Herald

Broadcast media:

Video:

Controversy/Criticism: I've cracked the code: it's rubbish, on Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code, (more criticisms)

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Books & Debate:
Books: AD: 2, 000 Years of Christianity (SPCK Publishing, 1999) ISBN 0281052875; How We Saw It: 150 Years of The Daily Telegraph 1855-2005 (Ebury Press, 2004) ISBN 0091894638; Best Sermons Ever: 2 (Continuum; 2 Reprint edition, 2003) ISBN 0826470971; The Best Spiritual Reading Ever (Continuum; New Ed edition, 2005) ISBN 0826480225; Comfort (Continuum, 2005) ISBN 0826476414; Prayers for This Life (Continuum, 2006) ISBN 0826480713; Assurance of Hope: An Anthology (Continuum, 2006) ISBN 0826482716; She Literally Exploded: The "Daily Telegraph" Infuriating Phrasebook (Constable and Robinson, 2007) ISBN 1845296753; Sacred mysteries: the human face of religion - A "Daily Telegraph" Book OCLC 82672007, 2007

Latest work: A Pilgrim in Spain, OCLC182732212 published by Continuum, 2011 Speaking/Appearances:

Debate:



The Daily Telegraph:
Column name: Sacred Mysteries

Remit/Info: Religion and Society

Section: News

Role: Columnist

Pen-name:

Email:

Website: Telegraph.co / Christopher Howse

Commissioning editor:

Day published: varies

Regularity: Weekly

Column format:

Average length: 700 words



Articles:

 * Vital Spark that wouldn’t go out - If you had been walking down a country lane in winter 170 years ago, very likely you’d have heard an old hedger plying his billhook and singing at his work. “Vital spark of heav’nly flame,” he would quaver, “Quit, oh quit this mortal frame.” - 27th October 2012
 * Cup of gold for the see of Canterbury - The method of appointing the Archbishop of Canterbury has been quirky and erratic - 6th October 2012
 * Bedford’s cult of God’s Daughter - Octavia Barltrop was one of the more eccentric new entries to the hall of British fame - 29th September 2012
 * A strange life in a suppressed society - The 'gentlemen at Stonyhurst' saw hope in Russia, where the Pope’s suppression of the Jesuits was never enacted - 22nd September 2012
 * George Orwell’s recipe for ideal treacle tart - Joining up the dots between Orwell's ideal pudding, CS Lewis's ideal England and the insights of St Maximus into the Incarnation - 8th September 2012
 * Big question from Stephen Hawking - The opening of the Paralympics had a cosmological theme and emblematic celestial sphere. “Ever since the dawn of civilisation, people have craved an understanding of the underlying order of the world,” Stephen Hawking said. “Why it is as it is and why it exists at all.” The answers keep changing - 1st September 2012
 * Puddleglum and the quest for the Grail - I had not appreciated the similarity between Puddleglum (not a man, but a Marsh-wiggle) and St John of the Cross until I read Sameer Rahim’s recent incisive interview with the Archbishop of Canterbury in the Telegraph books pages - 18th August 2012
 * Not just crowds of peasants shouting - A misapprehension about “Mystery” plays is that they were shouted by buffoonish players whose naive image of God resembled Brian Glover - 11th August 2012
 * The hidden history of British synagogues - An introduction to the undiscovered world of British synagogue architecture - 4th August 2012
 * Despised art of the Sacred Heart - In search of the true devotion behind the bad art depicting the Sacred Heart - 28th July 2012
 * English flowers on church walls - Christopher Howse is once more bowled over by the whirlwind enthusiasms of Augustus Welby Pugin - 21st July 2012
 * The high art of bright windows - It was often said, even in the Middle Ages, that stained glass was a sort of Bible for the poor, who might not read and could not afford books - 15th July 2012
 * The still centre of the world at Cliffe - The world, wrote the author of the Ingoldsby Legends “is divided into Europe, Asia, Africa, America, and Romney Marsh”. Another continent to add is the Hoo peninsula in Kent, best viewed from Cliffe - 7th July 2012
 * The man of Ross cheerful to burn - Christopher Howse is entertained by the eccentric characters in a new anthology from the Welsh marches - 30th June
 * The bodily God of Thomas Hobbes - The ordinary Christian doctrine is that when I die, my body is separated from the soul - 16th June 2012
 * 'I’m Satan, newly come from hell’ - the crux of the poem is a fist fight with a fellow poacher over territory, when Kane knows he is 'fighting to defend a lie' - 9th June 2012
 * Norfolk's finest church magnified - Inside the church that has been called the finest in its county - 2nd June 2012
 * What good ale we had for Whitsun - Sacred Mysteries: Christopher Howse goes in search of lost jollities for the Whitsun holiday - 26th May 2012
 * Surprise guest of the Kings of Leon - Christopher Howse goes in search of a saint wrapped in an Arabian tapestry - 19th May 2012
 * Letting the witch out of the bottle - the double standards applied to belief in witchcraft - 28th April 2012
 * The best of books, 1,300 years old - Christopher Howse asks why a book sold for £9 million was made in the first place - 21st April 2012
 * The Dalai Lama and the scientists - What can science make of the practices of Tibetan Buddhism - 14th April 2012
 * The wounds that spell healing - The author acknowledges that Jesus’s ministry of healing put right what was 'wrong' with people - 7th April 2012
 * Devotional high noon at St Paul’s - Sunrise seen from inside Old St Paul’s must have been astonishing - 17th March 2012
 * Why the Koran must not be burnt - Ways of disposing of worn-out holy books - 3rd March 2012
 * Your Lent prayers online or on paper - What the internet can offer in support of prayer in the run-up to Easter - 25th February 2012
 * Work should be the making of us - The economist who quotes a saint on how to give away money - 18th February 2012
 * New prayers for a 'wonderful queen’ - Prayers for less than admirable ruler - 12th February 2012
 * Christmas ends next Thursday - Christopher Howse looks at a Jewish ritual with an honoured place in the Christian calendar - 27th January 2012
 * Migraine cannot explain Hildegard - Hildegard of Bingen has a reputation as a visionary, a musician and a sort of feminist - 21st January 2012
 * Under the crest of the owl and rat - The surprises of Standish, a town near Wigan - 14th January 2012
 * God’s more than a watchmaker - How a misapprehension of the New Atheists has been exploded - 7th January 2012
 * St Joan of Arc’s 600th birthday - The enigma of the voices heard by the French saint - 31st December 2011
 * The man who finished St Paul’s Cathedral - the architect Stephen Dykes Bower should be a household name - 24th December 2011
 * A very Victorian sisterhood - Christopher Howse on the astonishing story of a woman who made Florence Nightingale's Crimean campaign possible - 17th December 2011
 * The ABC of not slurping soup - How children lived 600 years ago - and a song for their patron St Nicholas, alias Santa Claus - 10th December 2011
 * The Ethiopians living on the roof - An ancient African monastery is perched above the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem - 3rd December 2011
 * An inspiring plan for the Jubilee - Sir Christopher Wren wanted an astonishing 372ft spire at the centre of Westminster Abbey. Why not finish the building for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee - 26th November 2011
 * I’m just off to find the Holy Grail - Christopher Howse sets off in search of the chalice from the Last Supper - 19th November 2011
 * Who says that you can’t pray? - Christopher Howse meets Sister Rachel, the Catholic nun asked by the Archbishop of Canterbury to write a book - 12th November 2011
 * Calling upon God by his name - the name of God means more than choosing the right four Hebrew letters - 5th November 2011
 * The reason why Leo was Great - A British historian's nomination for the most important document ever issued by a pope - 29th October 2011
 * Knights in cloaks without daggers - The pomp and circumstance of an army of charitable knights - 21st October 2011
 * Buried behind the elephant in Rome - Christopher Howse is intrigued by a bestselling medieval author, whose tomb is hidden in Rome's only Gothic church
 * Ripping the pews out of the church - the trend for removing fixed seating and replacing it with stacking chairs - 8th October 2011
 * A bishop’s home is not his castle - It is alarming that the Church of England is selling off buildings that have been among its treasures for centuries - 1st October 2011
 * Journeying, all in the same boat - impressive stained glass and paintings by an artist who uses an ancient language of imagery - 1st October 2011
 * Paganism, from the Beast to Buffy - Aleister Crowley, witchcraft and modern pagan cults - 17th September 2011
 * Restoring the centurion’s roof - Ritualised language is returning to the English version of the Mass - 10th September 2011
 * A man stoned for gathering sticks - An examination of capital punishment in the Bible - 3rd September 2011
 * church closed by roosting bats'' - Bats have driven worshippers out of a 1,000-year-old church in Yorkshire - and it is an offence to kill, injure or handle the creatures - 27th August 2011
 * wasn’t just painting pictures'' - How a great painting fitted into the devotion of a whole town - 20th August 2011
 * amid rival pagan cults'' - Fascinating new light on the shadowy world of ancient pagan rites - 13th August 2011
 * sect of the rulers of Syria'' - The strange religion of the Assad family - 6th August 2011
 * art, icons are to be adored'' - Sister Wendy Beckett's emphasis on icons as worship is impressive - 29th July 2011
 * in the church choir'' - The misericords are livelier and less marginal than their traditional image - 15th July 2011
 * for a leap in the dark'' - Christopher Howse is pleasantly surprised to hear new music by young composers that seems to connect with the Spanish mystics - 19th June 2011
 * fleshly love still matters'' - Christopher Howse is provoked by a lively and learned biography that takes Dante seriously - 11th June 2011
 * Pugin's finest gift to his country'' - things are looking up for the Victorian architect's most treasured building - 3rd June 2011
 * goes crazy about St Ursula'' - Christopher Howse devours a guidebook to Venice that turns into a psychological thriller - 21st May 2011
 * world turned the right way out'' - Christopher Howse discovers G K Chesterton's appetite for things - 14th May 2011
 * portrait of Pope John Paul'' - Christopher Howse wonders how we shall picture the newly beatified pope - 6th May 2011
 * near Sandringham'' - Christopher Howse finds that the king who rebuilt Westminster Abbey had another favourite shrine, in Walsingham - 29th April 2011
 * sun within him: Thomas Traherne's Easter'' - Christopher Howse on the poet of delight's previously unpublished thoughts about the Resurrection - 23rd April
 * George gets his bank holiday'' - England is jumping the gun this year in celebrating its patronal day - 20th April 2011
 * feet on the dusty ground'' - Christopher Howse discovers an artist-poet with an inner vision - 1st April 2011
 * did the king sack El Greco?'' - Christopher Howse finds no enmity between saints, painters and prelates - 26th March 2011
 * the C of E in words and music'' - Christopher Howse celebrates the anniversary of an unlikely bestseller - 18th March 2011
 * men put into Bible scenes'' - Christopher Howse finds a thread of prayer in Northern Renaissance paintings at the National Gallery - 11th March 2011
 * cursed but cured by blood'' - Christopher Howse finds that flesh and blood are central to the Pope's new book on Jesus - 5th March 2011
 * perfect family film for Easter'' - it was with some relief that I found myself both interested and moved half way through The Way - 2nd March 2011
 * inexplicable hands of Ravenna'' - Christopher Howse is bowled over by the mosaics of Ravenna and discovers an unsolved puzzle - 22nd February 2011
 * phenomena of Pentecostalism'' - Christopher Howse wonders whether Pentecostalism oughtn't to be dated to well before the San Francisco earthquake - 12th February 2011
 * days before the royal wedding'' - Christopher Howse is fascinated by a detail from a lost world - 4th February 2011
 * that thing round your neck?'' - Christopher Howse was surprised by religious medals being called 'charms' - 28th January 2011
 * man whom Tennyson loved'' - Christopher Howse explains why he looks forward to a reading of Tennyson's In Memoriam - 21st January 2011
 * accused of witchcraft'' - Christopher Howse examines a new study of the response to fears of child possession among settlers in Britain - 19th January 2011
 * hidden medieval priory'' - Unearthing the Charterhouse - 7th January 2011
 * and the three policemen'' - Anthony Trollope got into hot water when he crossed a real, live dean, Christopher Howse discovers - 31st December 2010
 * African church in Hampshire'' - The leading church architect of the 20th century found inspiration in North Africa - 17th December 2010
 * and the peeling of Eustace'' - myth and allegory make the latest Narnia film the most satisfying - 10th December 2010
 * hatred of Turks, Jews and papists'' - Luther thought he had a sound reason for his strong antipathies - 3rd December 2010
 * tomb of Jesus in central London'' - The Templars once played a prominent role in the public life of the nation - 20th November 2010
 * the Pope's visit changed'' - A month on from Pope Benedict's welcome to Britain, Christopher Howse weighs the effect - 23rd October 2010
 * hidden medieval priory'' - Unearthing the Charterhouse - 20th October 2010
 * appointment with an angel at Hagia Sophia'' - In Istanbul, Christopher Howse views an angel unseen for 160 years - 27th September 2010
 * Newman caught in bright tessarae'' - John Henry Newman would have approved of being portrayed in mosaic - 21st September 2010
 * love poetry of John of the Cross'' - Christopher Howse discusses the sketch that inspired Salvador Dalí to paint Scotland's best-loved picture - 31st July 2010
 * murder or baptising a dog'' - Christopher Howse looks at the relationship between crime and Canon Law - 24th July 2010
 * the Anglican knapsack'' - 'Heaven and Earth in Little Space' by Rt Rev Andrew Burnham - 22nd May 2010
 * Mysteries: Renting the best seats in church'' - Christopher Howse looks at the history of rented seats in the UK's churches - 8th May 2010
 * it always a sin to be cynical?'' - Is it a sin to be suspicious and mistrustful in the time of our general election - 1st May 2010
 * way Jesus read the Bible'' - 'Covenant and Communion: The Biblical Theology of Pope Benedict XVI' - 13th March 2010
 * can God be inside us?'' - To eat a living person, body and soul, is not usually possible - 6th March 2010
 * Barbara Pym village in Devon'' - Outposts of the Faith, a book with an unusual focus on rural parishes - 27th February 2010
 * isn't the Pope's only battle'' - Pope Benedict can hardly be said to be meddling by stating moral principles - 3rd February 2010
 * is the First Commandment'' - Now the Pope has come out as an ecological activist - 11th January 2010
 * in the Wesleys' hymns'' - The notion of sacrifice in Holy Communion was of profound significance to the Methodist brothers - 12th December 2009
 * royal chapel for Roman Catholics'' - One must hope that when our next king swears his Coronation oath, the Church of England will still figure in it - 7th November 2009
 * an inkling of Anglicanism'' - Choral Evensong on Radio Three is as unknown as Test Match Special - 6th November 2009
 * don't know the Lord's prayer'' - Those who go to church only for funerals and weddings will not to be able to join in with the traditional words of the Lord's prayer - 6th November 2009
 * pious pelican on the Bible page'' - To me, the Authorised Version, or the King James Bible, as the Americans like to call it, is the most famous yet most under-familiar book in the world - 17th October 2009
 * more the sound of bells'' - Britain's long tradition of bell making is under threat - 10th October 2009
 * relics and bones that bring us closer to God'' - the allure of relics beats the human revulsion for dead bodies - 17th September 2009
 * you believe in angels?'' - Theologically, angels are a perfectly respectable notion - 4th September 2009
 * comes dropping flu'' - Church congregations are being made to adjust to swine flu precautions - 8th August 2009
 * no hands at East Hendred'' - Church clocks are a neglected feature of English parishes - 1st August 2009
 * John Calvin really a monster?'' - The two big obstacles to admiring Calvin are a chill authoritarianism and his repulsive doctrine of double predestination - 26th July 2009
 * pub and church worth the journey'' - Christopher Howse visits St Nicholas, Barfrestone, a church unlike any other - 21st July 2009
 * as the oil of the world of work'' - Pope Benedict redefines the market in his new encyclical - 12th July 2009
 * crown of stone for Westminster Abbey'' - The cloister houses a fountain that would grace any sultan’s palace - 4th July 2009
 * the naked green lady sings'' - CS Lewis noted how operatic the climax of his novel Perelandra was - 27th June 2009
 * built while the First World War went on'' - Flower-strewn memorials were part of British life long before the death of Diana, Princess of Wales - 20th June 2009
 * Queen Mary wanted to burn'' - Queen Mary’s abbreviated reign can now be, if not forgiven, at least understood - 13th June 2009
 * men cut in church stonework'' - The curious carving below, of vegetation growing from a man's face, is fixed to the roof at Norwich cathedral. The cathedral has 1,016 roof bosses, the carvings on the underside of heavy keystones in the roof vaults - 2nd May 2009
 * breathes new life into us all'' - This April has been an exhilarating month of changing skies and startling blossoms - 26th April 2009
 * earth and the Son of Man'' - The Bible shows that care for the environment is part of the Christian tradition - 25th April 2009
 * Christian world under Islam's rule'' - A striking fact has changed my view of Islam: that for 400 years, between the Islamic victories of the seventh century until the end of the 11th century, a half of the world's professing Christians lived under Muslim rule - 18th April 2009
 * Trinity and God's 99 names'' - The doctrine of the Trinity - that there is one almighty God who is three persons - is hard enough for Christians to understand, let alone people of other faiths - 5th April 2009
 * own Mesopotamia'' - The call of the muezzin has reached the river Cherwell’s edge - 29th March 2009
 * the Victorians had more fun than us'' - Jeremy Paxman's TV series depicts them as prim and dour – but theirs was an exhilarating and exuberant age - 14th February 2009
 * Mysteries: Finding a life after a sex scandal'' - A tremendous politico-sexual scandal burst in 1885 - 10th January 2009
 * swearing is repellent, like stinking fish'' - After the Ross-Brand scandal, television is on the cusp between washing its mouth out and sinking deeper into the slough of demented cussing - 4th January 2009
 * kings and St John the Evangelist'' - On the feast of St John's church, let us remember the legends behind the works of art that now illuminate our museums - 27th December 2008
 * Mysteries: Sister Wendy's pictures of love'' - The hermit Sister Wendy Beckett has spent the past year working on a book of pictures of St Paul - 13th December 2008
 * life of Rowan Williams'' - The Archbishop sees God as triumphing in failure. Is that a role for which he volunteers? - 6th December 2008
 * off the bishop's bequest'' - The sale of a 63-volume Bible for £55,000 was a thumping great clue in a detective trail to a scandal over which church people are still fuming - 29th November 2008
 * who've lost their memory'' - Readers of the Church Times have seethed up and boiled over in response to an analysis of the Church of England by Jonathan Clark - 22nd November 2008
 * meaning of God's presence'' - 'All her children were taught how to prepare meals," says the entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography for the philosopher G E M (Elizabeth) Anscombe (1919-2001). This brute fact underlies several stories of guests at her home being fed very odd food by very young children - 15th November 2008
 * Felicitas's handwarmer sold by nuns'' - It was among 350 lots for sale from Stanbrook Abbey in Worcestershire. The Benedictine nuns there are moving to North Yorkshire, to a smaller, newly built abbey - 8th November 2008
 * Command's bombing of Second World War civilians was wilful murder'' - 1st November 2008
 * Howson's harrowing of hell'' - 25th October 2008
 * survival of England's Syon'' - celebrating the life of Katherine Palmer, a woman from the Tudor age who stands out for the strength of her perseverance against calamities - 18th October 2008
 * tax on the font water'' - It is bloody-minded of water companies to profit from categorising churches as if they were commercial enterprises - 11th October 2008
 * Betjeman on the wireless'' - ...on an excellent new Betjeman collection which includes hitherto unpublished poems - 4th October 2008
 * secret of Santo Toribio'' - a trek through the hot mountains of northern Spain to see the veneration of a relic of the True Cross - 27th September 2008
 * the Pope is in Lourdes'' - The Pope's visit to Lourdes marks the 150th anniversary of the appearance of the Virgin Mary to Bernadette Soubirous - 13th September 2008
 * are eating Lichfield Cathedral'' - It may sound like science fiction, but it is science fact - 6th September 2008
 * delightful case of curiosities'' - Thomas More's hat and other curios in Everton - 30th August 2008
 * Newman's miraculous bones'' - What would Cardinal Newman have made of being dug up and of his bones being revered? - 23rd August 2008
 * the Gate of the Year'' - One of the best known yet least known poems was published 100 years ago. It is the poem quoted by King George VI in his Christmas Day broadcast in 1939 - 16th August 2008



The Daily Telegraph:
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Day published: varies

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Articles:

 * Norman Shaw's comfortable counterblast to Modernism - The great knack of Norman Shaw was to design houses that everyone would like to live in - 3rd November 2012
 * Celebrate by Pippa Middleton - review: What is the point of this thick, colourful book, except as a sort of cultural tea bag for the American market? - 3rd November 2012
 * Ash disease: how the loss of trees is changing our landscape - 100,000 ash trees have been cut down so far to combat the fungal disease - 2nd November 2012
 * Some people always look on the blight side of life - Experts say that if you grow potatoes yourself they will become diseased and infect the whole allotment - 17th October 2012
 * Will the handwritten clues to who we are be consigned to history? - Take it as read, says a new book, writing by hand is well on the way to extinction - 5th October 2012
 * The Hobbit unearths a hoard of myths - 'The Hobbit' provides England with the mythology it has lost. Always, even in Tolkien’s most trivial tales, there are hints of forgotten roots - 30th September 2012
 * Manet’s a portraitist who puts as much care into a lemon'' - A blockbuster exhibition of Manet's portraits is to be mounted at the Royal Academy in January - 28th September 2012
 * 'Citizen Khan’ is not racist, but it’s not funny either - The programme's offence is to bring back sitcoms to the slavery of one-liners - 13th September 2012
 * Ignore the sock puppets, they won’t bite you - Calm down. Authors who give their own books glowing reviews are nothing new - 5th September 2012
 * London’s buildings are real Olympic stars - It’s rakey, rakey time at Horse Guards, then a marathon tour of the City’s historic streets - 9th August 2012
 * Britain’s Olympics bells are an ancient noise - Tomorrow at 8.12am, give us a ring in the morning - 26th July 2012
 * Reincarnation? Surely we’ve been here before - At least Joanna Lumley doesn’t indulge in celebrity memoirs from a past life with royalty - 29th May 2012
 * The Bumbo is behind the ironing-board in the loft - The idea of people accumulating stuff that needs to be housed with them is a new one - 17th May 2012
 * A journey with Nikolaus Pevsner to the very edge of Englishness - There are few more delightful places than the Herefordshire countryside in spring - 6th May 2012
 * At a roadworks near you - the worst sound in the world - Dustcarts and construction vehicles are the noises that make Christopher Howse want to scream - 4th May 2012
 * When you sound too posh to earn the dosh - Neither dukes nor dustmen get a look-in with employers who like easy listening - 12th April 2012
 * Pugin: the man who made the Steam Age medieval - At the bicentenary of that Victorian whirlwind, Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin, there's real cause for celebration - 19th February 2012
 * A ban on playground slang? Not bloody likely! - A child’s mastery of patois should be a step towards the language that will land him a job - 16th February 2012
 * Keep your claws out of Wikipedia’s anthill - It may have its dark byways, but the online enterprise has an agreeably lived-in feel - 18th January 2012
 * 2012: All this and a diamond jubilee, too - Fifty years ago, Marilyn Monroe sang happy birthday to the US president, Rudolf Nureyev gave Margot Fonteyn her first dance – and next year is the centenary of Captain Scott's bold failure to reach the South Pole. Christopher Howse considers the milestones of the year - 30th December 2011
 * Chop down that Christmas tree, Paxman! - The Newsnight tree row is a reflection on the decorations horror we all face at this time of year - 20th December 2011
 * Poets’ Corner is a white elephants’ graveyard - No one could envy Ted Hughes’s admission to Poets' Corner - 7th December 2011
 * The cost of coffees puts the mochas on prosperity - Starbucks' plan to open 200 new shops is not the economic blessing it might seem - 2nd December 2011
 * If the English don't speak English, who does? - Dr Mario Saraceni has wrongly called on the millions who speak English around the world to lay claim to the language, rather than us - 3rd November 2011
 * Hallowe’en simply can’t be tacky enough - The sillier the merchandise, the clearer it is how little this fake festival has to do with Christianity - or even paganism - 30th October 2011
 * As libraries close, is that the end of the stories? - The widespread disappearance of public libraries can be avoided - 15th October 2011
 * Bad manners are still in very rude health - The Young Foundation says 'there is no objective evidence' of a decline in courtesy. Christopher Howse begs to disagree - 10th October 2011
 * The dark secrets of St James's Park - The discovery of Robert Moore's body on a small island is the latest odd event in the Royal Park near Buckingham Palace - 4th October 2011
 * talent seen as fairground freakery'' - Not many will remember Rory Weal for what he said at the Labour Party conference - just that it was odd for a 16-year-old to say it - 28th September 2011
 * With a new Pevnser, the Wirral's my oyster - A visit to Port Sunlight, guided by the latest addition to the Buildings of England - 25th September 2011
 * The energy-efficient lightbulbs that keep us in the dark - Poisonous, hazardous and too dim to read by, whose bright idea was the energy-saving bulb? - 2nd September 2011
 * Wodehouse was foolishly naive over Nazis'' - PG Wodehouse was more of a silly dupe than a Nazi collaborator - 26th August 2011
 * words don’t die, they just wait to be rescued'' - Dictionary-makers should know better than to say that words ever become extinct - 23rd August 2011
 * terrible secret of the goat on your plate'' - Kid may be fine when eaten abroad, but it will never be on the menu for Sunday lunch - 9th August 2011
 * papyri: frankly, they're still all Greek to me'' - The secrets of countless papyri are revealed - but what answers do they yield? - 27th July 2011
 * good man under a cloud'' - Cardinal Newman suffered mistrust from some of his new coreligionists, but it was nothing to William Lockhart's trials - 23rd July 2011
 * considered as one of the fine arts'' - There’s nothing like a good deathbed scene. But rehearsals prove more problematic - 15th July 2011
 * Life of Muhammad, BBC Two: why Islam forbids images of its prophet'' - Ahead of BBC Two's documentary, The Life of Muhammad, Christopher Howse explains why the programme took care not to show images of Islam's prophet - 11th July 2011
 * Burnley accent speaks louder than words'' - A Bombay call centre’s move to Lancashire is a counterblast against a fake heritage industry - 5th July 2011
 * Hari plagiarism row: It ain’t what you say, it’s the way they invent it'' - Our most memorable words are not those that are plagiarised, but those we never said - 30th June 2011
 * a pilgrimage to the ancient Kingdom of Castile'' - In a new book on Spain, Christopher Howse sets out to see the country as a pilgrim, celebrating the glories of its ancient churches and shrines. Here he takes a walk into the hills around Segovia - 16th June 2011
 * Desert Island fantasies of self-disguise'' - The radio show is not really about music, but about seeing through celebrities’ life stories - 24th May 2011
 * The deadly sin of nailing a triple-word score'' - Hell's jaws yawn open for Scrabble masters who know a qaimaqam from a qinghaosu - 10th May 2011
 * Roberts' most daunting challenge'' - Can Matt Roberts, whose summer fitness guide is free in next weekend’s Telegraph, get Christopher Howse to swap city suit for jogging pants? - 6th May 2011
 * wedding: Why the Middletons are about to be impaled'' - Heraldry is an utterly useless art – which makes a coat of arms so very desirable - 20th April 2011
 * there's no stopping Jedward'' - Irish singing twins Jedward, who have earned the biggest paycheck in 'X Factor' history despite coming a poor sixth in the show, prove you can't keep a good one-hit wonder down - 14th April 2011
 * Bible's Buried Secrets: old hat and nothing to do with religion'' - Francesca Stavrakopoulou’s King David was a straw man put together in order to be pulled down -16th March 2011
 * Brown never has the last laugh...'' - Wild indiscretion seldom enlivens the diaries of Gordon Brown's better half - 22nd February 2011
 * any good books lately, Prime Minister?'' - Novels are an unreliable diet for building up political leaders - 3rd February 2011
 * I've heard that one before'' - Imitation is more than flattery, it's the soul of wit, as someone said - 20th January 2011
 * Tutankhamun is history now'' - By being locked out of Tutankhamun’s tomb, we shouldn’t feel we are missing anything - 19th January 2011
 * people in Southwell'' - Christopher Howse discovers a rich Trollopian portrait of clerical life in the Victorian countryside - 7th January 2011
 * is now time to bury my decapitated head'' - Christopher Howse is prompted by the identification of the head of a long-dead king to address the issue of his own skull - 16th December 2010
 * to make a complete berk of yourself'' - You can’t blame either Spooner or Freud for James Naughtie’s bloomer on Radio 4 - 7th December 2010
 * no shame in not wearing a cross'' - Christianity’s trappings require no special pleading - 2nd December 2010
 * glad David Cameron’s jokes are violent'' - Christopher Howse rejoices that sex and fat men are still subjects for laughter - 26th November 2010
 * Wedding: The strange origin of royal fairy tales'' - The big day at the altar has not always been one of unbridled joy - 17th November 2010
 * wonder of Spam is that we call it food'' - Christopher Howse is caught between the Scylla of slow starvation and the Charybdis of luncheon meat - 12th November 2010
 * to the Soulcakers going about their mysterious mummery'' - Christopher Howse prefers an old Cheshire custom to supermarket Hallowe'en - 7th November 2010
 * words cause us all to stumble'' - As 'Countdown’ shows, a rude word can trip up even the serious-minded - 6th November 2010
 * I remember Staines – the name'' - Christopher Howse hopes that the town will treasure its shop-soiled toponym - 2nd November 2010
 * ain't what you say. . .'' - As the Untouchables of India plan to open a temple to honour the English language, Christopher Howse looks at how its shifting usage defines class and culture - 29th October 2010
 * welcomes thoughtful visitors'' - Christopher Howse is unconvinced by a scheme to entice philosophers to rural Wiltshire - 19th October 2010
 * be seen dead in an ill-dressed grave?'' - Christopher Howse rues the coming of new funerary rites that find a place for teddy bears - 13th October 2010
 * day to wrestle with God'' - The most surprising thing about Gauguin is his interest in religion - 9th October 2010
 * what furrows are'' - how G K Chesterton found joy in reality - 7th October 2010
 * fire: We don't want to see the end of the pier'' - After the Hastings fire, we should cherish the structures that remain - 7th October 2010
 * had an unlikely part in The Lord of the Rings'' - Standing in a field on the edge of the Lickey Hills on Sunday, I caught a breath of Tolkein's mythical version of England - 21st September 2010
 * modesty is something to boast about'' - what happened to a generation of heroes like Eileen Nearne - 15th September 2010
 * man feels a yearning to live in a shed'' - Christopher Howse hears the siren song of the flowerpots and the workbench - 7th September 2010
 * trendy décor, the writing's on the carpet'' - Christopher Howse fears Barack Obama's idea of messages on household items - 2nd September 2010
 * makes us beastly to pets?'' - The fate of Lola, the wheelie-bin cat, smacks of a traditional taste for cruelty that brings out the animal in us - 29th August 2010
 * Holmes in old churches'' - A sharp eye for details is essential to discover clues from the past - 28th August 2010
 * libraries: A pint of best bitter and a Cider with Rosie'' - Christopher Howse drinks in the benefits of a volunteer library in a pub - 25th August 2010
 * Russell versus faith in God'' - Which comes first, faith or philosophical proof? Christopher Howse on the latest twist in the controversy - 21st August 2010
 * tall tower in Twickenham'' - More city churches were demolished in peacetime than were bombed by the Luftwaffe - 14th August 2010
 * tall tower in Twickenham'' - More city churches were demolished in peacetime than were bombed by the Luftwaffe - 14th August 2010
 * in an Orkney summer'' - Long summer days can prove a challenge to Muslims during a month-long fast - 7th August 2010
 * pilgrim way to Santiago is clogged by throngs of egos'' - Hundreds of thousands make the trip, but what exactly are their motives - 5th August 2010
 * embarrassing poem for Chelsea Clinton's wedding'' - Poor Chelsea Clinton, at last escaping from her parents to the happy hunting ground of marriage, only to have her choice of wedding poem mocked - 2nd August 2010
 * wondered how ships were made?'' - Ever wondered how ships were made? At the restored Chatham dockyard, you can find out - 27th July 2010
 * next, policemen in pyjamas?'' - Uniforms serve a purpose – we don't want constables dressed like criminals - 20th July 2010
 * last rites of Beryl Bainbridge'' - Death was one of Beryl Bainbridge's favourite subjects - 17th July 2010
 * hard slog that refreshes the soul'' - As 250,000 hardy devotees join the trek to Santiago de Compostela, Christopher Howse explains the growing appeal of pilgrimages - 11th July 2010
 * giant, a bonfire and a mosque'' - St John's Eve just isn't what it used to be - 18th June 2010
 * first editions is a kind of madness'' - Buy beautiful old books, not first editions - 3rd June 2010
 * popes to pirates, it's a wonderful life'' - The 'Oxford Dictionary of National Biography' is a timeless joy - 27th May 2010
 * Rowan Williams damned Henry VIII to hell?'' - King Henry VIII might be in hell, the Archbishop of Canterbury suggested the other day in a sermon - 19th May 2010
 * takes a lot to make an Englishman cross'' - The pelican protester of Chideock follows a great tradition of peaceful resistance - 6th May 2010
 * blossom is blooming marvellous'' - Christopher Howse is uplifted by the appearance of blackthorn, hawthorn and cherry flowers - 28th April 2010
 * a good book is undone by its cock-ups'' - A recipe book calling for “freshly ground black people” has been pulped. Little wonder - 22nd April 2010
 * was born on a wet day in 1839'' - Half of women do not think their partners “true gentlemen”, and more than half complain that they are left to carry heavy shopping. Well, what do you expect - 15th April 2010
 * turn our radios into useless junk'' - Christopher Howse fears the effects of making us all use digital radios that don't even work - 8th April 2010
 * Pullman: Christ as Judas, in the Jeffrey Archer genre'' - Christopher Howse is disappointed that Philip Pullman has erased the myth from the Gospel in his new book, The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ - 31st March 2010
 * made a fortune - now let it go'' - There are sound religious and social reasons for giving your millions away - 23rd March 2010
 * us streets that are narrow and crooked'' - We prefer the unplanned Shambles to the grandest Bath crescent - 9th March 2010
 * Barbara Pym village in Devon'' - Outposts of the Faith, a book with an unusual focus on rural parishes - 27th February 2010
 * Rawnsley on Gordon Brown: biographical betrayals aren't what they were'' - Trivia about Gordon Brown are no match for the stuff we once relished - 22nd February 2010
 * the term of the decade? It's a war of words out there'' - we must look beyond vogue words in order to pinpoint social trends - 15th January 2010
 * is the First Commandment'' - Now the Pope has come out as an ecological activist - 11th January 2010
 * real Dark Ages, dulled by fashion and TV'' - We can't sing, dance or paint and we wear ugly clothes. Yet we patronise past centuries as inferiors - 13th December 2009
 * and Dec are the establishment now'' - War heroes are a dying breed. TV heroes engage the attention of the public for 3.8 hours a day, thus earning a place in Who's Who - 8th December 2009
 * stations have turned into little hells'' - Manchester is not alone in making passengers miserable - 18th November 2009
 * Mail strike: the last post'' - As a national strike threatens the future of Britain’s mail system, Christopher Howse laments the demise of the trusty postman - 18th October 2009
 * is still a place of refinement and fresh air'' - it's easy to patronise the suburbs: just mention gnomes and popular poems. Yet anyone who tries that easy game should be knocked down with a chair leg - 15th October 2009
 * Gladstone: A prime minister who read books'' - A fascinating study of the man and his books has been pieced together by Ruth Clayton Windscheffel in Reading Gladstone - 8th October 2009
 * and Constable: we've lost the art of feuds for art's sake'' - 19th-century art bred hotter rows than we can muster today - 23rd September 2009
 * Dylan on satnav is all wrong'' - Bob Dylan's voice gravelling out instructions to turn left in 50 yards is not a welcome prospect - although Joanna Lumley would be another matter - 26th August 2009
 * giant - or a nasty piece of work?'' - William Golding was not the only celebrated author to have a shady past - 19th August 2009
 * do love to be beside the seaside, for a while'' - The plan to make a single path along the English coast is misguided: there is plenty to look at just inland - 2nd August 2009
 * war: Church Road versus Church Lane'' - As a class war breaks out in Kent over the renaming of Church Road as Church Lane, Christopher Howse examines the snobberies attached to certain place names - 28th July 2009
 * landings: That's one small quotation for a man. . .'' - Following a claim that Neil Armstrong did not think up his famous phrase himself, Christopher Howse finds that no one said what you thought, and someone else said it first - 22nd July 2009
 * us from Betjeman Country'' - What would the poet have made of the listing of a street in Pinner? - 15th July 2009
 * window-frames will rot your soul'' - everyone needs protecting from UPVC, not just architectural snobs - 24th June 2009
 * myth of the anatomy lesson'' - Leonardo da Vinci dissected an aged patient but he did not get into trouble - 11th June 2009
 * George's Day: You can't breathe life into fossils'' - Foreigners celebrate St George's Day better than the English because we lack a living tradition for the occasion - 23rd April 2009
 * please, even earplugs don't ease my misery'' - Three or four nights of being kept awake is strangely disturbing - 19th April 2009
 * at the end of the tunnel: why the train is still the best way to see the country'' - The reopened Wareham to Swanage branch line is a triumph for lovers of train travel - 4th April 2009
 * orator's way with words is to weigh every one'' - Winston Churchill knew that only history can make a speech memorable - 29th March 2009
 * the bureaucrats' swarm of buzz-words'' - council jargon betrays delusions of grandeur in half-dead brains - 19th March 2009
 * Britain untidy'' - Our throwaway society is paying a high price for its addiction to litter - 10th March 2009
 * excuse for an apology from our bankers and politicians'' - Imagine Gordon Brown settling down for the cameras, in an armchair next to an elegant table lamp, and saying "Sorry I sold the gold", while a lone tear coursed down his sad, battered face - 5th March 2009
 * brings out the best of British'' - Snow brings out the best in people, if only our over-cautious officials would permit us to show it - 3rd February 2009
 * it snow, let it snow, let it snow'' - Get your skates on. The boreal blasts are turning your ponds to iron and your canals to strips of steel. The weather man says tonight they will freeze to adamant - 6th January 2009
 * words that train the ear'' - If you are the kind of person who buys Christmas cards in the January sales, you will be glad to hear that the Archbishop of Canterbury's Lent Book is already in the shops. Lent begins on February 25 - 21st December 2008
 * history of happiness'' - European culture has been driven by the search of happiness since the fifth century BC but could a TV monk have the answer - 20th November 2008
 * really doesn't matter if its is it's or it's is its'' - I wish we could break free from the petty tyranny of the little mark of punctuation - 12th November 2008
 * snow sensation'' - Why snow in the capital - the first October snow shower for 70 years fell this week - is different - 29th October 2008
 * this autumn; there's no rewind button'' - Christopher Howse finds that this short season repays a little attention with memorable pleasures - 21st October 2008
 * is a donkeys' bridge we all must cross'' - 9th September 2008
 * is our national emblem'' - Can't stand the rain? Christopher Howse says that perhaps it's time change our attitude to wet weather - 5th September 2008
 * countryside is a bewildering desert'' - Christopher Howse laments the passing of old Ordnance Survey symbols and the corresponding loss of a rural civilisation - 29th August 2008
 * every last man in the book'' - Banning the word man rewrites history and makes Shakespeare a sexist - 27th August 2008
 * Claudia Jones and Marie Stopes deserve the stamp of distinction?'' - The Royal Mail is celebrating "Women of Distinction" with a new set of stamps but is there any woman more distinguished than the Queen - 22nd August 2008
 * plenty to do this bank holiday weekend'' - Bank holidays are always a bad time to get out into the countryside, but that doesn't mean people will stay in front of the television - 21st August 2008
 * flinty treat at Southwold'' - Gordon Brown is a lucky man. He is enjoying a holiday in Southwold, Suffolk, where he may visit the lovely medieval church of St Edmund - 2nd August 2008



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