The Monthly Salon: July

Last chance for a summer chinwag

Hello all, and welcome to the monthly salon, your regular opportunity to set the agenda at the Abbey of Misrule.

Before I go on, let me alert you to a couple of new things. Firstly, for readers in Ireland, I will be talking next Thursday at the Percy French Festival in Roscommon, about taking inspiration from the early Christian desert saints. The whole day is full of interesting speakers, and it’s a great little gathering.

For those who can’t make it, you can see a video of the same presentation from my recent Dublin event with Jonathan Pageau and Martin Shaw. Unfortunately, the audio quality is poor, which is a shame. But that’s technology for you.

Back to the present. Next week, as I explained recently here, I’ll be suspending all subscription payments until September while I take a summer break from words. You don’t have to do anything about this - you will remain subscribed - but it means there won’t be any more ‘content’, as we have all learned to call it, for the next six or seven weeks. I’ll be too busy drinking tea and watching the Ashes. You can take the man out of England, but you can’t take England out of the man.

So this is your last chance to start some conversations until the autumn begins. As usual, the floor is entirely yours. You can talk about anything you like, other than Johnny Bairstow’s disappointing form with both bat and gloves. That’s hate speech, and I will deal with it accordingly.

Summer best to all of you,
Paul

---