This week the civilised world has been marking the fourth centenary of the death of William Shakespeare, poet, playwright and businessman. Universally admired he may be, but his works have suffered many vicissitudes over the years. The man himself began as a poet in a classical sense. The dramas came perhaps as a way of…

Dissonant Voices: Faith and the Irish Diaspora edited by Conn McGahhann (Institute for Theological Partnerships Publishing, £10.00) This book presents a selection of the papers read at a conference held in the London Irish Centre two years ago. Diaspora is given a very wide interpretation for the topics range from the 17th Century exiles in Europe,…

Our Lady of the Nations: Apparitions of Mary in 20th Century Catholic Europe by Chris Maunder (Oxford University Press, £25.00) Marian shrines are of great antiquity. At Knaresborough near Harrogate in England a small shrine, dedicated to Our Lady of the Crags, still survives. Built by John the Mason in 1408, and now the property of…

Bad Queen Bess: Libels, Secret Histories, and the Politics of Publicity in the Reign of Elizabeth I by Peter Lake (Oxford University Press, £35.00) It is often remarked that in modern Britain all that children learn of history are the Tudors and the Nazis. This is meagre diet, but there are universal truths to be learned…

There has been renewed talk lately about fixing the date of Easter, rather than continuing with it as a moveable feast. This is the sort of idea that the appeals to both the tidy minded and the sort of person who believes that Sunday trading is good for the economy, however damaging yet another day…

Dear Pope Francis: The Pope Answers Letters from Children Around the World by Pope Francis in conversation with Antonio Spadaro SJ (Messenger Publications / Jesuits in Ireland, €14.99) It is not unusual for recent Popes to be associated with books for children. We had, for instance, a rather charming book about Pope Benedict’s cat – cats…

My Indian Journal: Exploring Interfaith Connections by Catherine McCann (ISPCK, €8.00; ISBN 978-81-8465-529-2; available from Veritas, Dubray and Easons) They say that there are two ways to get to know the heart of a country: either make a brief intense visit, or spend a lifetime there. Anything in between may well leave one confused about the…

Stitches: A Handbook on Meaning, Hope and Repair by Anne Lamont (Hodder & Stoughton, £9.99) In this wise little book, popular writer Anne Lamont draws on the now almost lost art of make and mend which our grandmothers so firmly believed in. A stitch in time can save not only that favourite garment, but also, she…

The Book of Margery Kempe translated and edited by Anthony Bale (Oxford World’s Classics, £8.99) In 1934 an extraordinary literary discovery was made in the library of an Old Catholic family in England. It was a medieval manuscript that had escaped the dissolution of the monasteries. Found in the Derbyshire home of the Butler-Bowdons, it had…