Bijan Omrani, God Is An Englishman: Christianity and the Creation of England

Great title, but very disappointing read. The author was setting out to show how instrumental in a positive way Christianity has been to the shaping of English culture and identity and bent over backwards to make his case. Because Christianity and Englishness are both so wide-ranging, it's possible to cherry pick examples that prove the opposite of another - for example, he makes the points that Christians were instrumental n the abolition of the slave trade in the British Empire, but not that for the previous 1500 years they had been perfectly ok with it, and many opposed the abolition. There was one point where he claimed that the common belief that Christian festivals like Easter are based on pre-christian traditions is not true. This was based on the fact that there is no documentary evidence for there being a pre-christian god called Eostre, other than Bede saying there was. So we can leave aside all the fertility/spring imagery of eggs, bunnies, overindulgence etc which has nothing to do with Christianity, and also leave aside that one of the most partisan Christians in English history said it was based on a pre-Christian festival. I'm not denying that Christianity has had a profound impact on English culture, it certainly has, both in a negative and positive way. some of the greatest social reforms and civilising measures have been driven by Christians - but they've also been opposed by them. Some of the worst atrocities and shaming episodes in English history have been opposed and denounced by some Christians - but also supported fully by others.

Marina Lewycka, Two Caravans

 Crikey, only 3 months since I reread Marina Lewycka's debut novel and I've forgotten a lot of the plot already. I +think+ the two books interlink and characters from the debut have cameos in this book, but I could be wrong. I enjoyed this old-fashioned boy-meets-girl story in a novel setting - amongst migrant labourers trying to scratch out a living in a foreign, unwelcoming country. Tonight I'm helping out at the Squirrels sleepover, not sure how it will go. Have also been landed with the organisation of the Scout trip to Ypres next week month and trying to make sense of it - we should have paid some months ago and owe £3k apparently