ROff bright and early to Oxford. I listen to the news en route and become concerned about what life must be like in Aleppo and light a candle later to that effect. Lovely service and spiritually rewarding. Address by the retired and very fit octagenerian Peter Godfrey. It is of great interest to me as he did his undergraduate degree in Sheffield. He is highly entertaining. And uplifting. He has had an amazing life. He told us about the feminist Margaret Crook who taught him
A fearsome Catholic woman who lectured them on the woes of birth control but otherwise had sound values. She wore trousers constantly; when told in a restaurant in the US that women in trousers weren't allowed, she took them off. Wish I could remember her name.
And he moved in the same circles as the late Ian Ramsey who became Bishop of Durham, and I have just discovered went to the same school as my Dad.
Afterwards we chat about the Catholic attitude to life, viz, we are all sinners and must behave or rot in hell.
Later I am in the Weston Library to see the the exhibition Shakespeare's Dead. It is just a bit much. I am interested in Death and a member of Dying Matters but the literary interpretations of Shakespeare's work as always, defeats me. I get the main themes, and of course, it is the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death, so well done to the Bodleian Libraries for displaying a major exhibition that confronts the theme of death itself in Shakespeare's works.
Shakespeare's Dead looks at last words spoken, funerals and mourning as well as life after death, including ghosts and characters who come back to life. These themes are explored using key items from the Bodleian's famous literary collections that include Shakespeare's First Folio and the first Shakespeare playbook (Romeo & Juliet), a number of early editions and an extensive collection of plays and poetry by Shakespeare and his contemporaries. Fascinating to observe, impossible for those with a more scientific background to interpret. At least this one, who failed Eng Lit O Level. Despite being in love with Thomas Hardy.
Read more.
The Reformation introduced the concept that there was no hell or purgatory and no divine right of the clergy. William Shakespeare was right in the middle of all this. His father was born Catholic but was required to white wash and the religious posters of hell and sin.
After all that, it is time for a walk round Christchurch Meadow and home!
Remembering at the bus stop, thanks to the plaque on the wall of the courts, that motor vehicle manufacturer and philanthropist, Lord Nuffield, a self made man.
Then it is beer o'clock and time for a Renegade IPA
Certain people are meanwhile having a laugh in the BrewDog pub in Sheffiled, where we had fun back in May
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