Puritanism Archives - Huguenot Jo

How can I keep from singing?

Huguenot Jo — Mon, 13 Mar 2023 18:38:11 +0000

Why they called me Joy I don’t know.

When the midwife asked my mother for my name, she thought she heard the reply “Joey”. If only. They needed a boy, to inherit the family butcher business. I was the last …

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“Was the earth made to preserve a few covetous, proud men to live at ease…?”

Huguenot Jo — Sat, 17 Dec 2022 15:06:51 +0000

“…Or was it made to preserve all her children?” – Gerrard Winstanley, Founder of the True Levellers (the "Diggers"), 1649.

As gifts, tea towels from the Radical Tea Towel Company are hard to beat for politicos. Apart from the blatantly …

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Hooray! It’s Bedfordshire Day!

Huguenot Jo — Sun, 27 Nov 2022 12:27:59 +0000

Bedfordshire, where I grew up, is a dull county of no note in the middle of England.

It probably does deserve its own day to give it a boost, especially since Northamptonshire – another dull county in the middle …

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Happy Thanksgiving!

Huguenot Jo — Thu, 24 Nov 2022 18:31:53 +0000

Huguenot Jo warmly wishes you a joyous celebration of the Pilgrim Fathers.

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Treason season: people, power and plot

Huguenot Jo — Sat, 05 Nov 2022 09:59:03 +0000

A new exhibition at the National Archives in Kew, Treason: People, Power & Plot, opens today.

It explores how the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade, the establishment of the Church of England, the creation of the United States …

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Off to Canterbury, in pursuit of a French Chapel

Huguenot Jo — Sat, 19 Mar 2022 13:53:58 +0000

The French Chapel at Canterbury Cathedral caught me by surprise - as the door was unlocked, I felt a surge of emotion.

A full account follows shortly, but here’s a photographic taster of the Cathedral and the Chapel within.

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When I consider how my light is spent: a terrier’s life

Huguenot Jo — Sun, 30 Jan 2022 14:58:32 +0000

Poor old John Milton (1608-1674) was probably only in his late forties when he went blind, having had a tumultuous life up until then.

He was a Puritan and a propagandist both for Oliver Cromwell’s Republic and the regicides, using …

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The Buddha and a calming colouring book

Huguenot Jo — Sun, 19 Dec 2021 15:12:01 +0000

A new Buddhist temple has recently opened near our house, and free meditation classes are always on offer. It’s a pleasant way to spend half an hour, and following a guided fantasy led by one of the orange-robed monks is …

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Thanksgiving Thursday: starting a New World Order

Huguenot Jo — Tue, 23 Nov 2021 19:29:25 +0000

Thanksgiving in America celebrates the first arrival of a band of Puritans in the New World in 1620, having survived an arduous sea passage from England in a vessel called The Mayflower.

These Pilgrim Fathers had a distinct ambition of …

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To be disreputable, disrespectful, disobedient

Huguenot Jo — Sat, 16 Jan 2021 16:35:20 +0000

Sarah Perry’s latest publication, “Essex Girls: For Profane and Opinionated Women Everywhere”, is a tiny little book based on a Harriet Martineau lecture she gave; it’s an entertaining read for any woman who doesn’t like to shut up.

Sarah Perry …

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An excellent gift for the Vicar

Huguenot Jo — Sun, 13 Dec 2020 12:59:31 +0000

Bah Humbug is one response to Christmas, exemplified by Dr Seuss’ The Grinch. In 1644 Parliament was peopled with Puritan Grinches, and their declaration cancelling Christmas has now been reproduced on a tea towel.

Clearly these were not populists, appealing …

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For God’s sake: the things they do to you

Huguenot Jo — Sun, 13 Oct 2019 12:07:24 +0000

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Cancer ward

Huguenot Jo — Sat, 23 Mar 2019 14:37:52 +0000

I’ve been sitting in a cancer ward at the Royal Marsden Hospital, desperately relying on a Tudor detective novel to distract me. Nurses are putting cancer drugs into my child and it’s almost impossible to bear.

One of them catches …

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Half-Hanged Mary and The Handmaid’s Tale

Huguenot Jo — Sun, 15 Jul 2018 10:56:11 +0000

Margaret Atwood dedicated her novel “The Handmaid’s Tale” to Mary Webster – “Half-Hanged Mary”. Webster was hanged from a tree for witchcraft in 17^th century Puritan New England, yet – remarkably – survived overnight, was cut down, and subsequently …

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Dreams, nightmares and the possibility of flight

Huguenot Jo — Mon, 21 May 2018 09:23:02 +0000

The stand-off between pagan superstition, Christian rationalism and science is a central theme in Sarah Perry’s second novel The Essex Serpent. Perry was brought up a Strict Baptist; Strict Baptists, like monks, live in the world but not of …

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The fear that someone, somewhere may be happy

Huguenot Jo — Mon, 07 May 2018 15:48:34 +0000

I read Puritanism: A Very Short Introduction with a sense of recognition. Here were my people, all down in black and white. Strict Baptists – the sect I was brought up in – must be the rump, the tiny remainder, …

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