10 Famous People Buried in Westminster Abbey

1. Sir Isaac Newton: Buried in 1727 near the quire screen
2. Charles Darwin: Located in the scientists' corner
3. Stephen Hawking: Ashes interred in 2018
4. Ernest Rutherford: Renowned physicist
5. Charles Dickens: Famous novelist
6. Laurence Olivier: Renowned actor
7. George Frideric Handel: Composer
8. David Livingstone: Explorer
9. Aphra Behn: One of the first English women to earn a living from writing
10. William Wilberforce: Politician and abolitionist

David Copperfield

At long last I have finished Charles Dickens' David Copperfield. I am a very slow reader and so my Dickens intake has been very limited down the years. I think its only Christmas Carol, Great Expectations and Hard Times plus pretty much all of Oliver Twist that I've managed. I've now got through the biggest novel (880 pages). I mostly enjoyed it but Dickens really has all the time in the world. Quite autobiographical, it really is a masterpiece full of very memorable characters (Micawber, Uriah Heep, Mr Dick, etc). I'm sure a re-read would reveal all sorts of things I missed. I've also watched a version of the story that was on BBC many Christmasses back (Daniel Ratcliff, Maggie Smith, Trevor Eve,  etc, etc). Such productions can only sketch over the story. Traddles, for example, disappears.

Day Off Week 14 2025

It's a week ago now but I did have a nice day off on April 1 not caught out by any pranks. I've now reached page 745 of David Copperfield so the end is in sight. Also had a nice walk and a coffee and watched Univeristy Challenge from the day before which I had missed because of a meeting with the architect. We also watched the last of the interesting drama based on the story of Ruth Ellis. Also a bit of research for apaper I have to give next month.

Day Off Week 11 2025

I began my walk but once again deviated after havinga  coffee and found it hard to do all my steps but got there eventually. till very slowly reading David Copperfield. I am enjoying it but it is so long. I also started watchinga  Swedish TV drama. In the evening my niece Charlie was with us. She is doing the Flourish course at the seminary. I ended up serving the evening meal as Eleri was late home. We have had someone else staying here but justin and out. God day.

Day Off Week 9 2025

We travelled last week to South Wales but this week it was back to a more traditional day off. I did my walk in the rain, although I again deviated from the indtended path. I ready a large chunk of David Copperfield - still a long way to go. I caught up on the Univeristy Challenge from the day before and in the evening we watched the final two episodes of the latest Unforgotten. There was also work on a project for next week.

Day Off Week 7 2025

My day off last Tuesday was similar to recent ones except that when I went on my walk on the Heath I went off my usual track and ended up in the Caffe Nero in Highgate, which I've not been in for a while. While in Highgate, I popped into the Oxfam shop and spotted a nice Paul Gallico illustrated book. I read some of The small miracle and started on the papers for the Affinity conference at the beginning of next month but my main reading was again David Copperfield. I also watched the University Challenge I'd missed and, in the evening, a bit of Miss Austen.

Day Off Week 6 2025

 

So it was on with the t-shirt and trainers again yesterday to live out anothe day off. I carrie on reading David Copperfield, which I am enjoying and also spent time on a collection of obtuaries from The Times on various muaicians from the rock world. As usual, I walked across the Heath and had some coffee. I also did some blogging and in the evening watched an episode of Silent Witness, rather gruesome but interesting.

Day Off Week 5 2025

Proper day off today. Dressed for it in t shirt and trainers, I headed off for a walk on the Heath quite early and had an early cuppa too, reading David Copperfield. Read quite a bit of that through the day (it's brilliant, of course) but also found time to watch the latest University Challenge, do some blogging and write a letter for someone, etc. Got some cheese in Waitrose to write up on my cheese blog. Near the end of the day I had bottle of pear cider that I bought from Marks and Spencer. Very nice.Reading Dickens description of Copperfield and the waiter brought back a memory of school days and acting out the scene in class (Year 8?). I was the waiter and sought to extract as much comedy from it as I could.

10 Works of Fiction That Sustained Young David Copperfield

Before being sent off to school David used to love to read these in a room next to his bedroom, books left by his father. I confess I have only read two or three of these.

1. Roderick Random (Tobias Smollet|)
2. Peregrine Pickle (Tobias Smollet|)
3. Humphrey Clinker (Tobias Smollett)
4. Tom Jones (Henry Fielding)
5. The Vicar of Wakefield (Oliver Goldsmith)
6. Don Quixote (Miguel Cervantes trans Tobias Smollett)
7. Gil Blas (Alain-René Lesage trans Tobias Smollett)
8. Robinson Crusoe (Daniel Defoe)
9. The Arabian Nights
10. The Tales of the Genii (James Ridley)

Day Off Week 4 2025

As last week, this was a slightly truncated day off. This time I had to be at a zppm meeting wth regard to a trust I serve. I managed to get some walking done later. I also went shopping - for cheese (see my cheese blog), reading glasses and a copy of David Copperfield, bought with some Christmas money. I have now started to read the Dickens and am enjoying. I also did some drawing in a 642 London book (also a Christmas present) and later watched an episode of an ITV drama.

Day Off Week 50 2024

A more formal day off this week. I went for a walk on the Heath, which is part of my usual routine these days. I had a coffee at Kenwood House. Two new books arrived - Jonathan Landry Cruse's Sing in exultation! (now going cheap at ICM). This is a devotional for Christmas making use of lines from Christmas hymns. It is nicely done with room to write your own thoughts (which I  have begun doing). It gives no information about the hymns themselves. I also got the 2008 P&R hardback The Incarnation in the Gospels (Reformed Expository Commentary) which turns out to be the relevant comments from the respective commentaries plus a few extras. I am also dipping into A poem for everyday of Christmas an anthology chiefly with children in mind. Good to read poems well known and obscure. Also reading Christmas Carol as I try to every year and Nutcracker which I don't think I've read all the way through before. Plus some John Fawcett for a project I have on. I also watched the Martin Scorsese documentary on The Beatles just out (more elsewhere) and then in the evening we watched the final episodes of Anthony Horowitz's Moonflower Murders. This dramatises the second of three novels he has done in the Agatha Christie style. All very clever. The solution not that good sadly but lots of fun on the way (apart from the over acting of Mark Gatiss). 

Wedding in Kent

So last Thursday my wife and I headed east to Kent. We stayed in a nice little (very little) Air BnB in Rochester for the night. We enjoyed having a wander in the historic town which we have only visited once before. Satis House is apparently the house that Dickens based the home of Miss Haversham on and Abdication House is where James II en route for the continent and no longer being king. We had an afternoon coffee and later a pizza at Pizza Express. Very nice. I bought a nice little book on Helen Keller for children, which I enjoyed. We also watched The Highway Men a Netflix film about the notorious criminals Bonnie and Clyde.

The reason we were in Kent was to be at the wedding of Davd Mitchell to Alice Relf in Chatham. We have known David for years. He came to us when he was a student. One of my sons was bestman (great speech) and another a groomsman. Great day at churh and at the reception. Lots of ministers there one way and another.  One of the most enjoyable weddings I have attended.

Five Good Books Recently Read

One tries to keep reading. Here are five I've recently got through and enjoyed. First, Nick Needham's superb fifth volume on church history. This time we are in the wonderful eighteenth century. Much of it I knew but a great deal I did not. I particularly enjoyed the section on Bengel the commentator. I don't recall seeing the bald statement that Wesley was happy about women preachers anywhere else. I bought Footnotes on spec when I saw going cheap in a local bookshop. A great bargain, it travels various parts of Britain in the company of Dickens, Blyton and others in a partly random series of trips. Its chief strength is that it is very well written. Most engaging. I got the book on animals in the same manner as the Fiennes' book. I thought it was part of another series but it is not. I would think it is fairly easy to write such a book but very enjoyable to read (if you ignore the evolutionary stuff).

When my father-in-law demobbed his vast library most of it went to Newcastle but I did get hold of the five volume Vos Systematic Theology. Recently I thought I had better start reading it and so took up Volume 1. It is hard going in parts but mostly just keeps going. There is no prolegomena so the first volume covers Scripture, God and his decree. I have already started on Volume 2. I actually paid full price for the McCall short stories in a different booksop (I'm not a complete skinflint - though rather impulsive). I've not read any Smith for ages and enjoyed these spy stories immensely, although the final story which touches on theology had a very disappointing section attempting to explain what orthodox catholic Christians believe about the Holy Spirit. It is unnerving when you see what a hash he makes of it, having been so impressed with everythhing else. I might hunt down some more McCall Smith; there's loads of it. I thought this was an interesting quote from one of the stories

Sides are often arbitrary - the result of historical accident: friendship can be much more important than allegiance and membership, and can, sometimes, outrank other, lesser loyalties. Where you are born, and the flag that flies over your birthplace, may turn out to be far less important than the promptings of the heart within.

10 Christmas Traditions

1. Preaching six sermons or more on Christmas themes (all from Matthew 1 and 2 this year)

2. Singing most of the Christmas hymns in our hymn book

3. Watching the film Elf starring Will Ferrell

4. Watching University Challenge Christmas Special on TV (five watched so far)

5. Reading the novel Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

6. Reading some Christmas detective fiction (this year Val MacDiarmid)

7. Going through a book of devotions from December 1-24 or 25 (this year J C Ryle)

8. Burning down an advent candle December 1-24 (a red one this year)

9. Going to see Kate Rusby and her band doing one of their Christmas concerts

10. Listening to lots of Christmas music (I now have 575 items in my collection)

Day Off Week 49 2022

There was still snow on the ground come Tuesday but I headed out nevertheless and walked down the road to an art framers, where I ordered a frame for one of the opaintings I did in the summer. I walked on from there to the Costa in Cricklewood and caught the bus back home, where I stayed the rest of the day. I had one or wto things to deal with but mostly was wrapping presents while listening to Christmas music, reading a lovely edition of Dickens' Christmas Carol I was given last Christmas by one of my sons and watching, with Eleri, the last two episodes of the BBC detective drama Strike. I dipped into the football a little bit but Argentina didn't seem to have any trouble against Croatia. Nice day. We also had a nice facetime with one of the boys in Cardiff.

Day Off Week 50 2019

Yesterday's day off had a real Christmas theme. I did some blogging but mostly I was either reading about Christmas or listening to Christmas music. The snow goose is not really a Christmas book but it has a winter vibe. I enjoyed reading it again, especially in the edition I own illustrated by Angela Barrett. I also have a Wordsworth children's book 'Twas the night before Christmas which is a Christmas anthology. I read Clement Moore's poem, Louisa May Alcott's Christmas dream, a shortened version of A Christmas Carol done by Dickens himself and Hans Christian Anderson's The Fir tree. All full of god morals. In the evening Eleri and I went down to the Royal Festival Hall to see Kate Rusby and her band singing Christmas music. Very nice - more on that anon.

10 London Musea focused chiefly on individuals

1. Sigmund Freud (Freud Museum)
2. John Wesley (Wesley's Chapel and House)
3. Thomas Carlyle (Carlyle's House)
4. Charles Dickens (Charles Dickens Museum)
5. Samuel Johnson (Dr Johnson's House)
6. Georg Handel (and Jimi Hendrix) (Handel and Hendrix in London)
7. John Keats (Keats House)
8. William Hogarth (Hogarth's House)
9. Benjamin Franklin (Franklin's House)
10. Florence Nightingale (Florence Nightingale Museum)

10 interesting words and phrases in Dickens' Christmas Carol

Internet Archive Book Images, No restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons

1. Bedight - Adorned (and bedight with Christmas holly stuck into the top.)

2. Norfolk Biffins - Red apples (there were Norfolk Biffins, squat and swarthy, setting off the yellow of the oranges and lemons,)

3. Smoking Bishop - form of mulled wine (we will discuss your affairs this very afternoon, over a Christmas bowl of smoking bishop, Bob!)

4. Total abstinence principle - a phrase commonly associated with teetotaling, ie never drinking any alcohol or "spirits" - it's a pun (He had no further intercourse with Spirits, but lived upon the Total Abstinence Principle, ever afterwards;)

5. Apoplectic opulence - apoplexy involves becoming unconscious or incapicaitated. Her eit is due to opulence, wealth or luxury (tumbling out into the street in their apoplectic opulence)

6. Retire to Bedlam -  Bedlam was a well known lunatic asylum in London where you would spend yoour final years if you were insane (There's another fellow, my clerk with fifteen shillings a week, and a wife and family, talking about a merry Christmas; I'll retire to Bedlam.)

7. Counting house - an office or building in which the accounts and money of a person or company were kept (eg on Christmas Eve - old Scrooge sat busy in his counting-house)

8. Comforter -  a woollen scarf (eg Wherefore the clerk put on his white comforter, and tried to warm himself at the candle)

9. Forfeits - this is a parlour game where a piece of clothing or some personal belonging is put into a pile on the floor and can only be redeemed by doing something silly, as decided by a judge. (After a while they played at forfeits; for it is good to be children sometimes, and never better than at Christmas, when its mighty Founder was a child himself.)

10 The word scrooge originally meant to squeeze.

(I also noticed reading it again in 2023 that there is a reference to a Welch wig tat Scrooge's old boss, Fezziwig, wears. It is a woollen cap, long the back).

"Day off" Week 49

As noted in week 39 the luxury of a day off is not always possible and this is one of those weeks. So I have had to stagger as is necessary from time to time. So what I am doing is saying that the day is in three parts. I had an evening out last Monday to see Kate Rusby as reported and I''ll be pretty much relaxing also 4.30 - 7.30 pm on Saturday when we have our church social. The other component came yesterday when I took it rather easy after the Westminster Conference doing some blogging and reading about insid jokes on Wikipedia and exploring some other websites. Later I read the first stave of Dickens' Christmas Carol it being that time of year and the 175th anniversary of its publication. Everyone says it is a masterpiece. It is.

PS The Christmas social was great - lovely food and conversation and games. My annual quiz was bearable. We finished off with some performances inclduing a comedy sketch, a rendition of yakty sax and Rachmaninov's second piano concerto on piano and accordion. Lovely evening.

Some More Christmas Reading 2017

Another short volume in my Christmas collection is Stuart Burgess's The Star of Bethlehem which I read right through recently - it is not long. I had expected to get a lot of science but after a brief introduction dealing very briefly with that sort of thing it's application all the way, with 10 chapters all told. Sometimes the applications seem a little remote but it is all sound stuff and (as Peter Masters would put it) very suggestive!

I have also read this Christmas (possibly for the first time - it is so ubiquitous it is hard to be sure) Charles Dickens' inimitable Christmas Carol. Again, it is not long (under a hundred pages) but well written for the most part. It is pretty sentimental and quite man centred really but not without its lessons for all of us. It was a huge hit in 1843 when it was first published and has never looked back.