Sunday 20 April 2014


When I get up out of bed of a weekday, I invariably turn on the Radio 4 news and listen while I'm shaving and then having breakfast to the woes of the world. However, I unconsciously do the same on a Sunday and find myself listening to the Sunday service, which takes the place of weekly news. I leave it on for the hymns mainly, which instantly take me back to my childhood, not because I faithfully attended church (though I did do that sometimes) but because in those days we had an assembly first thing in the morning at school which included bible stories and hymns, both of which I am grateful for now. I'm not devout, but both the stories and the songs can feed the spirit and raise it up on their own merits. Handel's 'Thine Be The Glory' is a superbly lifting piece of music. There are many others. You don't have to be a believer to find joy in such music. And stories like Samson and Delilah (a woman spurned) and David and Goliath (a bully gets thrashed by the nice boy of the class) are equally engaging. I am swept back to that 5 to 11 year old Garry at Felixstowe Langar Road Primary School, the smell of cabbage and potatoes still lingering from yesterday's school dinner, belting out 'Rock of Ages' tunelessly from well-used lungs and listening enthralled and appalled to the story of Joseph being left to die in a pit by his brothers. Aaaahhhh, Nostalgia.