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The Spring fashions are out in all the shops.  Are you tempted?  Probably – we spend more than £47 billion* on clothing in Britain each year. Well, here is some refreshingly good news: cheap clothes can last as long as designer clothes, and in many cases reasonably priced gear even offers you better quality. Textile...

George Herbert wrote a poem entitled ‘Lent’ which contains these lines: Who goeth in the way which Christ hath gone, Is much more sure to meet with Him than one That travelleth by-ways. And so each Lent we seek to journey with our Lord through the 40 days of this season. Lent is an Old...

Many people know that Joseph was the father of the most famous man who ever lived, but beyond that, we know very little about him. The Gospels name him as the ‘father’ of Jesus, while also asserting that the child was born of a virgin. Even if he wasn’t what we call the ‘biological’ father,...

The creator of London’s sewer network – as well as several notable bridges, embankments and streets – was born 200 years ago, on 28 March 1819. He was the civil engineer Sir Joseph Bazalgette, a man whose name deserves to be far better known than it is, because of the huge benefits he brought to the...

With Mothering Sunday this month, we praise our mothers for all the good that they do for us.  And it is good to remember what a precious thing a good family can be. Here is one tip to strengthen your family:  give your children TIME.  Turn off your smart-phone for a couple of hours and...

Why should St Joseph’s day be in March?  Surely, he belongs to Advent and Christmas, at Mary’s side in millions of nativity scenes around the world. In any case, as foster-father of Christ and husband of Mary, Joseph played a major part in the story of the coming of Jesus Christ.  All that we know...

Cuthbert of Lindisfarne (c 634-87) has long been northern England’s favourite saint.  It is easy to see why:  Cuthbert was holy, humble, peaceable, prayerful, faithful in friendship, winsome, and really kind. Cuthbert was born into a fairly well-off Anglo-Saxon family, and became a monk at Melrose in 651.  He and another monk, Eata, were sent...

The World Wide Web was invented 30 years ago this month, on 12th March 1989, by Tim Berners-Lee while he was working at CERN, the European particle physics laboratory. His innovation – a global hypertext document system originally described by his superior as “vague but exciting” – was intended to help scientists share data across a then...

If you have ever been caught up in a great event at work, which has gone on to change your own life, then Thomas Cranmer is the saint for you.  He was the first ever Protestant Archbishop of Canterbury, following King Henry VIII’s decision to pull away from Rome, and set up the Church of...

One of Britain’s best-loved authors, Julia Donaldson (The Gruffalo and Room on the Broom) has said how much she detests seeing parents looking at their phones and ignoring their children. “You often see a parent with the child trying to get the parent’s attention, with the parent scrolling down and looking at Facebook.”

Well, at least our families are! In 1961 there were 16.6 million households in the UK with an average of 3.0 persons. In 1981 there were 20.6 million families with 2.7 persons each. By 2001 we were 24.5 million households, with 2.4 people in each. By 2021 we’ll have 28.3 million households, though still with...

Families are divided in two kinds of people: givers and takers.  Blessed is the family with at least one ‘giver’, that someone of a cheerful, generous nature who does not panic when you ask them for help.  These kindly saints are on hand when you need them, not fleeing with the cry “But I have...