They Speak By Silences by A Carthusian

About the book: They Speak By Silences are a translation of two small books published originally in French by the Benedictine nuns of St Priscilla in Rome. The first, Silence Cartusien, was published in 1948, there being nothing to indicate its origin beyond a brief forward in Italian. This was followed in 1953 by a similar work by the same hand, Voix Cartusienne; and it is these two works which are now translated and presented in English for the first time. They were born in silence and solitude of a Charterhouse, and their very anonymity is part of that silence. 

It is due perhaps to the reader to say that the writer of these pages held for some years various positions of authority in the Carthusian Order, involving the direction of souls. The extracts here given were never in the author's mind intended for publication; only after his death in 1945 were they carefully collected and published as has already been told. Such in brief is all that is known to the outside world of the writer of this book. His life, like the life of any Carthusian, was not made up of external events, and we need to do no more than let his words speak for themselves. As he himself would be the first to admit, it is not what they say but what they leave unsaid that will probably influence other souls, seeking as he sought that union with God which is not peculiar to Carthusians or to any other religious, but is the end set before all men. 

We can only re-echo the hope expressed by the original editor of these works that the thoughts preserved and collected in this little book may help and encourage others to persevere in the ascent to that union. 

They Speak By Silences (1955, 2006) is translated from the French by a Monk of Parkminster.

When There Is Just Cause For Anger

The History of the Sufferings of Eighteen Carthusians in England by Chauncey Maurice

About the book: The History of the Sufferings of Eighteen Carthusians in England Who Refusing to Take Part in Schism, and to Separate Themselves from the Unity of the Catholic Church, were Cruelly Martyred is an unchanged, high-quality reprint of the original edition of 1890.

The tragedy of the fall of the Charterhouses of England began with the martyrdom at Tyburn of the three Carthusian Priors: Blessed John Houghton of London; Blessed Augustine Webster of Axholme; and Blessed Robert Lawrence of Beauvale on 4 May 1535.

Of the forty-eight members who remained in the London Charterhouse after Houghton's death, thirty were choir monks, and eighteen lay brothers.

On 18 May 1537, the Royal Commissioners came to their monastery and exacted the Oath of Supremacy from the Prior and twenty of his subjects. Of the twenty-eight others, seventeen died for the Faith, and all the others were expelled with a small pension of £5 a year; among these latter was Dom Maurice Chauncey, a monk of the London Charter House and the principal authority for their history of which a translation is here offered about the year 1539, shortly after the destruction of that House by Cromwell and his agents. 

About the author: Dom Maurice Chauncey was born in Hertfordshire about AD 1513. He was educated at Oxford and Gray's Inn, and entered the Carthusian Order before he was twenty, and was professed in 1534, Blessed John Houghton being then Prior. During the persecution which followed that Martyr's death, Dom Maurice was zealous in resisting the endeavours of Cromwell to induce the monks to acknowledge the supremacy of the King, and was one of four who were sent away from the London House into another House of the Order near Hull, with the object, it would seem, of breaking down his constancy. He returned after a time to London, and partly through the influence of the Monks of St Bridgett at Sion House and partly cajoled by representations and promises which gave him hopes that his taking the oath would preserve the London House, he yielded and took the oath; but speedily repented, and for ever afterwards deeply grieved over what he had done. 

Dom Maurice died on 12 July 1581 in Paris, aged sixty-eight years. On his body being prepared for burial, there was found fastened on it, an iron chain, the instrument alike and the witness of his lasting penance. 

The Story Baker by Carsten Henn

About the book: From the international bestselling author of The Door-to-Door Bookstore comes a delicious, heartwarming story of a has-been ballerina who takes up a temporary job in a bakery, finding purpose in every loaf she bakes.

What ingredients does a good life need?

Though she only just started her temporary job at the village bakery, former ballet dancer Sofie already wants to quit from day one. Her career abruptly ended after an injury threatened any and all chances of success, and losing her most beloved passion has thrown her life off track.

Yet there is something about the rhythms of the bakery that captivates her. Fascinated, Sofie watches old Italian baker Giacomo at work, and discovers that baking bread is almost like a dance: the dough is kneaded on beat, the rotation of the hands a steady rhythm, the swing of the hips like a practiced routine. To her own surprise, Sofie comes to see the little bakery as far more than just a place of work: it slowly transforms into a reprieve. It is here that she discovers the wisdom of a simple man, the joy of small things and the courage to embrace change.

A bestselling phenomenon, The Story Baker (13 October 2026) is the delightfully charming small-town story of one woman who finds solace, love, and community in the most unlikely of places.

The Story Baker will be released in the UK on 3 December 2026. It is translated from the German, where it was originally published under the title Der Geschichtenbäcker, by Melody Shaw.

About the author: Carsten Henn has worked as a radio presenter, wine and restaurant critic, and has published a number of successful novels. He lives in Germany.

Rating: 5/5

Ethel Kennedy by Kerry Kennedy

About the book: Ethel Kennedy: The Extraordinary Life and Bold Legacy by Kerry Kennedy about? (13 October 2026) is a vivid, intimate biography of American icon Ethel Kennedy by her daughter Kerry Kennedy, told through her firsthand memories and exclusive access to Ethel’s personal papers

When her husband Robert F Kennedy was killed in 1968, Ethel Skakel Kennedy - then pregnant with their eleventh child - drew national attention for her grace, dignity, and resolute commitment to furthering his work in human rights, even in her grief. But as her daughter Kerry witnessed, Ethel was so much more than a dutiful wife and keeper of Robert's legacy of service. She was courageous, curious, compassionate, boisterous, and witty, always guided by faith and an instinct for speaking truth to power.

Kerry delves into her own memories, her family's recollections, and her mother's private papers, describing:

- Ethel's family's journey from a working-class Chicago background to life in tony Greenwich, Connecticut

- Ethel's fairytale romance with Kerry's father RFK - a courtship that inspired a Taylor Swift song half a century later

- How the bold, athletic Ethel quickly became "more Kennedy than the Kennedys"

- The years on the famed family properties in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, and the Hickory Hill estate in Virginia, where Kerry and her ten siblings grew up amidst presidents and politicians, Olympians and Hollywood stars, and a rambunctious menagerie of pet animals

- Moments of pain and loss - RFK’s death just five years after that of his brother; and the tragic deaths of two of Kerry’s siblings

- Ethel’s unflagging commitment to global human rights causes that carried on through the decades

Ethel Kennedy: The Extraordinary Life and Bold Legacy by Kerry Kennedy about? inspires us to reject cynicism and to live bigger and bolder.

The UK's publication date for Ethel Kennedy is 5 November 2026.

About the author: Kerry Kennedy is a human rights lawyer, activist, New York Times-bestselling author, and daughter of Ethel Skakel Kennedy and Robert F Kennedy. Kerry is the president of Robert F Kennedy Human Rights, the organization Ethel founded in 1968 to continue Robert's unfinished work, and served as chair for the Amnesty International USA Leadership Council for over a decade. During her forty years working in human rights, she has led hundreds of delegations and negotiated with leaders around the globe. She is the author of three previous books: Robert F Kennedy: Ripples of Hope; Speak Truth to Power; and Being Catholic Now.

Alone in Court by Edward Romain

About the book: ‘An enormously valuable - and long overdue - book.’

Rt Hon Lord Smith of Finsbury, Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, from his Foreword:

"Every year, thousands of people in England and Wales walk into a courtroom without a lawyer. Nobody tells them what they are walking into. This book does.

Drawing on the case files of Blind Justice UK, Alone in Court: What Happens When Ordinary People Face the Justice System Without a Lawyer (2026) follows ordinary people through the decision to fight, the paper war, the tactics of the other side, the day in court, the cost, the obsession, the loneliness, and what winning – and walking away – really feel like.

An electrician owed twelve thousand pounds for work already done. A teaching assistant whose defence never reached the judge. A hairdresser who opened a twelve-page letter from a City firm and felt her hands go cold. A woman who won her tribunal claim on every point and recovered a fraction of the award.

Their names have been changed. What happened to them has not.

Every chapter ends with what it means for you: what to do, what to avoid, and when to stop. The book closes with a costed proposal for a litigant in person liaison officer in every court, and three appendices covering the legislation, the court forms and the free help that exists.

This is not a textbook. It is a field guide, written by someone who has stood in court alone himself, for anyone about to do the same."

About the author: Edward Romain is a writer, poet and lawyer, and the founder and CEO of Blind Justice UK, a registered charity working to improve access to justice for people who face the courts without a lawyer. He read English and History at Durham, took the Graduate Diploma in Law at Sussex and studied the Bar Professional Training Course at BPP, and is an Associate member of the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives (ACILEX). Fifteen years later he stood in a courtroom as a litigant in person, and that experience took him back into law, led him to found Blind Justice, and became the book Alone in Court, published in November 2026 with a foreword by Lord Smith of Finsbury, Chancellor of the University of Cambridge.

Through Blind Justice UK, he has handled more than forty case files, given evidence to the Justice Select Committee, and worked with parliamentarians and ministers on court reform. His research has been published as formal written evidence by two parliamentary committees, and the charity's work has been covered by the Law Society Gazette and Legal Futures. His poetry collection The Man Who Grew Things is also available on Kindle. He lives in Brighton.

In The Shadow Of Eight by Collin Gosselin

About the book: Collin Gosselin, one of the sextuplets from ​Jon & Kate Plus 8, breaks his silence ​to share the shocking story hidden behind the facade of a ​picture-perfect family.

For years, the world watched Jon & Kate Plus 8 through a lens of curated joy. But while the cameras captured the milestones, they missed the moments that defined Collin Gosselin’s life: the Christmas morning where the gifts were reclaimed as soon as the cameras went down, and the basement room where silence was his only companion.

In the Shadow of Eight: Surviving The Reality of My Childhood (2026) is the first account of a secret childhood lived in the gaps between the frames. Collin is finally sharing the truth about being held down, the basement cell where he was hidden for years, and the cocktail of powerful antipsychotics forced on an eleven-year-old boy. 

This is a reckoning with the dark side of fame: the systems, the entourage, and the institutions that allowed one boy to be erased. 

This is the never before told story of how he escaped and found his way back from the dark.

“As someone who knows firsthand the lasting impact institutional trauma can have on a young person’s life, I was deeply moved by Collin’s honesty and strength. So proud of Collin for turning his pain into purpose and powerfully sharing his story with the world.” - Paris Hilton

About the author: Collin Gosselin is one of eight children of Jon and Kate Gosselin, featured on the popular TLC show Jon & Kate Plus 8. Born in 2004, he is now 22 years old and has begun to speak out on his true experiences behind the scenes.

You Don't Need A Smartphone by August Lamm

About the book: In this revelatory manifesto, anti-tech activist August Lamm gives you the courage and confidence to ditch your smartphone once and for all.

When I owned a smartphone, my life was bad. I knew this. What I did not know was that I had a choice.

August Lamm wasted her youth on the internet. In her late twenties, burnt out as a social media influencer, she sold her smartphone and switched to a dumb phone. Immediately, her mental health improved, her attention span increased, and her curiosity returned. Since then, she has made it her mission to help others do the same.

Lamm started using a smartphone at age 14, so she knows how it feels to come of age glued to a screen - and how hard it is to break free. Filled with moving stories and practical suggestions, You Don’t Need a Smartphone: A Practical Guide to Downgrading Your Phone and Upgrading Your Life (2026) proves that living without a computer in your pocket is not only possible but ideal. 

Offering guidance on selecting a new phone, navigating without GPS, meeting people offline, and overcoming obstacles like digital tickets and dual-factor authentication, You Don’t Need a Smartphone is as urgent and radical as its title, and a new blueprint for a fulfilling life in the Information Age.

About the author: August Lamm is a writer and visual artist. She is the author of one art book, Crosshatching in Pen & Ink, and a forthcoming novel. 

An Alphabet Of Saints by Fr Robert Hugh Benson

About the book: All children delight in verse and this book, which tells the story of twenty-six Saints in rhyme, will be welcomed by all. The excellent drawings give great scope for children of an artistic bent while the rhymes are readily learned by heart. The familiarity that is established with famous Christian names inevitably fosters a desire for further knowledge later on. 

In the spirit of St Francis of Assisi, poet and God's Troubadour, this timeless classic portrays the lives of the saints through creative, catchy poetry and quaint etchings. 

Each letter of the alphabet is honoured with a saint: A is Anthony, B for Benedict, C for Saint Christopher, and so on. It includes universally beloved saints like Dominic, Francis, and Martin, as well as lesser known saints such as St Odo and St Ursula.

This book is an engaging learning tool, whether your child is learning the alphabet, the saints, or both Each page features:

- A vintage etching of a scene from the life of a saint and the letter of the alphabet

- A brief biographical summary of the saint's mission, life, and feast day

- A delightful poem about the saint, with fluid rhymes for easy memorization

THE twenty-six SAINTS in this volume of rhymes 

Lived in various places at various times; 

But now they’re together in Heaven, and know 

All we think, say and do in the world here below; 

And since all that you ask - if you pray for good ends - 

Will be granted by GOD at the prayer of His friends, 

You should call on these SAINTS in the days of your youth 

For the Peace of the Church and the Triumph of Truth. 

We hope, as these Rhymes are the best we can do, 

That the SAINTS will be pleased, and that you’ll be pleased too.

An Alphabet of Saints (2025) is a reproduction of the 1905 British classic, An Alphabet of Saints.

Sunday Evening Thoughts

People That Read Books Find Absolute Pleasure In Reading

Translation Work: Future Prospects?

Said The Dead by Doireann Ní Ghríofa

About the book: Said The Dead (2026) is an unforgettable book - both history and ghost story - that will leave you gasping by its final page.

In the city of Cork, a derelict Victorian mental hospital is being converted into modern apartments. One passerby has always flinched as she passes the place. Had her birth occurred in another decade, she too might have lived within those walls. Now, she notices a sign: FOR SALE. It is the first of many signs. Following them, she finds herself drawn into an irresistible river of forgotten voices, those of the women who knew this place best: insistent, vivid and true. They murmur from archives and old records; they whisper from stairwells and walls. Among them - and in one figure in particular - she may find meaning, solace, rage; her own salvation, perhaps, or her own vanishing?

A work of sublime intensity and tenderness, Said the Dead breaks the boundaries between worlds - past and present, imagined and real - to make something lasting and new: an experience full of danger, full of love and full of truth.

On 30 September 2026, Said The Dead was shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize and also a No 1 Irish Times bestseller from 23 May to 6 June.

About the author: Doireann Ní Ghríofa is an Irish writer. Her most recent book, A Ghost in the Throat, won the James Tait Black Prize, the An Post Book of the Year and was shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize. She is also the author of seven critically acclaimed books of poetry.

Rating: 5/5

Purgatorian Manual

About the book: Why should we pray for the Holy Souls in Purgatory? Theologians assert that those who bestow mercy upon the suffering souls, shall themselves find great relief and assistance in Purgatory; they consider active charity towards the holy souls a mark of predestination to eternal happiness.

This beautiful pocket sized prayerbook is only 3" x 5" and less than 1/2 inch thick, yet it contains almost 300 pages of wonderful prayers. 

Purgatorian Manual contains every prayer, meditation, novena, and Mass for the Holy souls that you could imagine. It is a treasure for those who love the Holy Souls and wish to pray TO and FOR our dearly departed. 

Purgatorian Manual was the official Manual of the Purgatorian Society promoted under the auspices of the Redemptorists. 

This edition was published during the second world war in 1941 and was extremely popular among Catholic Americans during the war years.