Author Archives: Ian Poulton

Tell me the old, old story

For the fainthearted . . .

The early episodes of the television series Heartbeat seemed to treat of more serious themes than those more recent.  There was a comic element in Bill Maynard’s character Claude Greengrass but the situations faced by PC Rowan seemed more rooted in the realities of rural life.

Religion was still a part of the weekly life of ordinary people.  In Heartbeat country, religion meant ‘chapel’.  In our village in the 1960s, there were three chapels and two churches.  Two of the chapels still function at a reduced level, the church just …

A Sermon for Sunday, 5th January 2025

For the fainthearted . . .

‘Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.’ John 1:17

There is a always a sense of thanks to God for reaching the beginning of a new year.

For Anglicans, the words of the prayer of General Thanksgiving from the Book of Common Prayer express that sense of God with his people through time:  ‘Almighty God, Father of all mercies, we thine unworthy servants do give thee most humble and hearty thanks for all thy goodness and loving-kindness to us and to all men. We bless thee for our creation, preservation, …

Dickens the tactician

For the fainthearted . . .

Spending more time than desirable behind the wheel of a car, audio books have become important.  Last year an Audible subscription brought the option to choose the books to which I wished to listen, along with some bonus choices.

The £7.99 a month cost seemed good value compared with the cost of most other entertainments.  On Boxing Day, I paid £19 to stand on the terraces at Yeovil Town to watch a poor quality National League football match, tickets for rugby matches are more and tickets for music concerts considerably …

Searching for a refugee

For the fainthearted . . .

Family trees are like jigsaws, they are fun to complete and there is always a special sense of satisfaction when finding pieces that unexpectedly fit together or putting in that piece where the pattern did not initially  seem quite right.

So when when a friend at lunch on Sunday gave me a couple of names with which to start, I was delighted to start the puzzle.  As the picture has slowly emerged it has been a surprise to me, and an even greater surprise to him.

One grandmother was Italian, …

A Sermon for Sunday, 29th Dedember 2024

For the fainthearted . . .

“Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” Luke 2:41

The story of the boy Jesus in Jerusalem is a troubling one. “Wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?” he asks, in Seventeenth Century English.

How did his parents not even notice he was missing? Many of the people of rural communities were part of large, extended families and to have gone off for a day would have not been unusual, but parents would always have known with which member of the family …

Young people have become boring

For the fainthearted . . .

Walking through the supermarket the sound of Slade’s Merry Christmas Everybody filled the aisles.  I read once that Noddy Holder and Dave Hill, the writers of the song, earn about £500,000 in royalties on the song each year.  It is 51 years since it was released, it has been an excellent pension fund!

Slade are memorable for their outrageous glam rock presentation and their unconventional spelling of lyrics. Slade used spellings that might have prompted apoplexy among traditional English teachers fifty years ago.  Song titles included Cum On Feel the …