Christopher Howse



Profile:
Full name: Christopher Howse

Area of interest: Religion and Society

Journals: The Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Telegraph

Email:

Web: Telegraph.co / Christopher Howse

Blog: blogs.telegraph / Christopher Howse

Agent:

Network:



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: Letters editor, columnist, reviewer

Advisory/Other posts:

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

TV/Radio:

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

Latest work: Sacred mysteries: the human face of religion - A "Daily Telegraph" Book OCLC 82672007, 2007

Awards/Honours:

Advisory/ Other posts:

Speaking/Conferences:

Other:



The Daily Telegraph: 'Sacred Mysteries'
Column remit: Religion and Society

Section: News

Role: Columnist

Pen-name:

Email:

Website: Telegraph.co / Christopher Howse

Commissioning editor:

Day published: Saturday

Regularity: Weekly

Column format:

Average length: 700 words



Articles:

 * 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
 * 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: Comment
Column remit:

Section:

Role: Columnist

Pen-name:

Email:

Website:

Commissioning editor:

Day published: varies

Regularity:

Column format:

Average length:



Articles:

 * 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

