Author Archives: lesleyjonesberry

Kneeling where prayer has been valid

Posted on May 17, 2019 by lesleyjonesberry

On Good Friday we went to St Paul’s Cathedral for Matins.  It’s a formal choral service, dominated by sung psalms, anthems and responses,  creating a context for the congregation to dwell in the music, the mood, the building.  For me, … Continue reading →

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Sloe gin

Posted on May 17, 2019 by lesleyjonesberry

My brother makes sloe gin and, at Christmas, he presented us with a bottle, along with home-made jam and preserves.    We’d made an enthusiastic start on it, but for some reason the last few measures lingered in the bottle, until … Continue reading →

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Much Posessed by Death

Posted on February 3, 2019 by lesleyjonesberry

I had a half-written blog and was resisting its completion because I felt that I’d written enough about mourning and mortality.  Then, this week, I learned that my first boyfriend had died, just days short of his 56th birthday, and … Continue reading →

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A farewell to Borka

Posted on January 13, 2019 by lesleyjonesberry

A few days ago it was announced that John Burningham has died.  He wrote and illustrated children’s books and was the illustrator of Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang, the book by Ian Fleming which became even more famous in a musical film version.  As … Continue reading →

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Time before and time after

Posted on February 16, 2018 by lesleyjonesberry

Last week I met up with my English teacher.  We have seen each other occasionally over the years, perhaps once a decade since she taught me at ‘A’ level many years ago.   And it occurred to me that there are … Continue reading →

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En passant

Posted on February 9, 2018 by lesleyjonesberry

The other day I received last-minute tickets for a BBC recording at the Radio Theatre at Broadcasting House. I had no other plans so decided to go, despite the short notice. I also realised that what appealed to me was … Continue reading →

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Safe as houses

Posted on February 9, 2018 by lesleyjonesberry

Like many of their generation, my parents grew up in rented homes and were first-time property owners.  My grandfather viewed my father’s ambition to buy his own house with suspicion.  They were savers, not spenders, and debt, in the form … Continue reading →

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Fair is foul

Posted on February 9, 2018 by lesleyjonesberry

My water bill contains the suggestion that I have a meter installed so that I can pay for the water I use.  This, is states, is “fairer”. I am reminded of a scene in Anne Fine’s novel “Taking the Devil’s … Continue reading →

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Clothes

Posted on January 7, 2018 by lesleyjonesberry

It’s January and the sense of a new start, together with tantalising offers of sales from the shops, tempts many of us to review our wardrobes. I struggle with buying clothes: faced with what seems like endless rails of garments, I find it hard to discriminate Continue reading →

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Subversive folk

Posted on May 1, 2017 by lesleyjonesberry

The most exciting television this weekend was not Line of Duty, but a moment in Doctor Who.  An episode called Thin Ice, set in 1814 London at the time of the Thames Ice Fair, and the moment comes as the … Continue reading →

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