Jane Charman
@janeeecharman.bsky.social
Country vicar, all weathers, please close the gate
Happy 5th August 2026, skylarks. If I said ‘there will come soft rains’, would you know what I was alluding to?
In case you were wondering, I’m currently reading the Pevear and Volokhonsky translation. Much lauded as the easiest on the English ear but there are plenty of clunks and clangs.
Sigmund Freud rated The Brothers Karamazov as ‘the most magnificent novel ever written’ and this alone should send a frisson down the spine of anyone planning on reading it.
‘Reading Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov is like pushing a beautiful grand piano up a very steep hill’ said somebody or other and I can confirm that this is true.
Best way to get a good night’s sleep in hot weather? Put your socks in the fridge then climb in with them 😆
Morning skylarks. Apparently the late great Richard Griffiths was twice considered for the role of #DrWho and I could really have got behind that as a concept.
Synod lessons - the last one then I’ll shut up. Play the long game. And sometimes the game is very long. Don’t dwell on defeats. Extract the wisdom and move on. New quinquennium, new opportunities.
Synod lessons. Motions that won’t change anything or oblige anyone to do anything may be treated as a lower priority by busy people with more than one call on their time.
Synod lessons - when presented with a motion most people will reasonably ask themselves ‘what’s in it for me?’ And if the main thrust of the motion is not in their interests no amount of ‘but we acknowledge not everyone agrees’ will make them want to vote for it.
Synod lessons - avoid multipartite motions. Sub clauses that explicate a main motion are helpful but a collection of separate propositions will reduce support with each new one that’s added.
Morning skylarks. A feminist is someone who holds these ideas in synthesis: that women and men are different, not interchangeable, not superior or inferior, more but not less than their sexed bodies and not to be conflated with whatever notions about masculinity/femininity society currently holds.
Happily I won’t have to fight for a ticket to see the Bayeux Tapestry in the British Museum having already seen it in Bayeux 😎
@churchtimes.bsky.social · 2w ago‘Lucky ticket-holders will have plenty to see and enjoy. Yet it is intriguing that the chance to see it should be so popular’ #BayeuxTapestry #History #Heritage
Morning skylarks. The number of people who claim to be feminists is larger than the number of people who are feminists. It’s fine to point this out.
Sure, some men are jerks. Like the ‘influencer’ who carried a bath to the top of Snowdon for a selfie and dumped it there. But other men are heroes, like the teenage rugby team who carried it down. Well done lads. We see you. Show your sons. www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/rugby/...
Stunned Welsh rugby team remove bathtub from Pen y Fan summit after stunt
The players helped National Trust workers remove the tub, which had been left at the summit following a supposed world record attempt
walesonline.co.uk
I have a copy. And I’ve read it 👍
EMILY WILSON@emilyrcwilson.bsky.social · 2w agoNow that many people are buying my 2017 metrical verse translation of the Odyssey in great numbers (thank you, Mr Nolan!), or at least, gazing at it and wondering whether to buy it, I thought I should share some thoughts on the cover design.
My two newest curates are taking their first weddings this week. So proud 🥰
”Falsehood flies & truth comes limping after it.” Jonathan Swift, Anglo-Irish satirist (1667-1745), Dean of St Patrick’s Cathedral Dublin, author of A Tale of a Tub, Gulliver's Travels; champion of liberty, whose Saeva Indignatio inspired Voltaire, Yeats, Joyce, Orwell. @tcdlibrary.bsky.social
Good morning skylarks and here’s a little thing I’ve learned over the years. Effective feminism requires the lavish use of the word ‘no’. Sometimes it saves time to position several ’no’s’ together as in ‘no, no’ or ‘no, no, no, no, no’ 🫷🏻🫷🏼🫷🏽🫷🏾🫷🏿
‘Asking the questions?’ It’s no good. My brain will automatically go ‘Bamber Gascoigne’ til the day I die.
Who’s up for a far right, radically exclusive, hateful public conversation about … motherhood?
Theos@theosthinktank.bsky.social · 2w agoBecoming a mother changes everything. But for too long this profound process has been hidden from public conversation. Our new report Motherhood, Inside Out explores just how radical these changes are. Follow along to find out more 🧵👇
Authentic feminism is sharp in tooth and claw. I learned that lesson long ago. I am always baffled by people who seem to think it should be kind, gentle, self sacrificing and accommodating. Presumably because they think that all women should be those things.
When you’re young you have time and energy but no money, when you’re middle aged you have energy and money but no time, and when you’re old you have time and money but no energy. So best plan your life with this in mind 🤗
Good morning skylarks. We didn’t enjoy the footy, then?