Clare of Assisi by Marco Bartoli

Paperback: In this new biography, Marco Bartoli retells the fascinating story of St Clare of Assisi for our own time. It is the first objective study by a professional historian, and it cuts through the fog of hagiography to reveal a profile of a real woman whose struggles and achievements can serve as an example and an inspiration to us today.

Clare's story is set against the background of the turbulent age in which she lived. Economic forces and the position of women were changing rapidly, and there are obvious parallels with our situation in the twentieth century and thereafter. 

Marco Bartoli has drawn on the best, most recent, scholarship available, as well as on Clare's own writings and eye-witness testimonies from some of her contemporaries. She emerges as a real woman, one who resisted the roles imposed upon her by her family, by society and the Church, and who became a saint by identifying her own place in the world.

Clare's spirituality is given due prominence, and a chapter is devoted to exploring the originality of her vision. Not only was Clare the first woman to write a Rule for other women, but she was for many the embodiment of St Francis' teaching and insight. As the translator, Sister Frances Teresa OSC, writes, 'the Franciscan charism cannot be expressed in its fullness today without the loving voice of Clare calling us and guiding us to a radical reappraisal of all our values'.

Clare of Assisi by Marco Bartoli will appeal not only to scholars and those in religious orders - since the publication of the Italian edition, it has become widely recognised by Franciscans as the best available biography of her - but its lively narrative will ensure that it can be enjoyed equally well by the general reader.

Clare of Assisi was first published in Italian in 1989 and translated into the English in 1993. 

About the author: Marco Bartoli (1954) is an Italian historian and a specialist in St Francis and St Clare. 

About the translator: Sister Frances Teresa is a member of the Community of Poor Clares at Arundel, West Sussex, England. She is the author of Living the Incarnation: Praying with Francis and Clare of Assisi. 

Camilla: From Outcast To Queen Consort by Angela Levin

Hardback: Camilla: From Outcast to Queen Consort (2022) is a compelling new biography of Camilla, Queen Consort, that reveals how she transformed her role and established herself as one of the key members of the royal family.

For many years, Camilla was portrayed in a poor light, blamed by the public for the break-up of the marriage between Prince Charles and Lady Diana. Initially, the Queen refused to see or speak to her, but, over the years, the Duchess became one of the Queen's closest companions. Her confidence in Camilla and the transformation she saw in Prince Charles since their wedding resulted in her choosing the first day of her Platinum Jubilee year to tell the world that she wanted Camilla to be Queen Consort not the demeaning Princess Consort suggested in 2005.

 

Angela Levin uncovers Camilla’s rocky journey to be accepted by the royal family and how she coped with the brutal portrayal of her in Netflix's The Crown. The public have witnessed her tremendous contribution to help those in need, especially during Covid. 

Levin has talked to many of the Duchess’s long-term friends, her staff and executives from the numerous charities of which Camilla is patron. She reveals why Camilla concentrates on previously taboo subjects, such as domestic violence and rape. Most of all, Levin tells the story of how Camilla has changed from a fun-loving young woman to one of the senior royals’ hardest workers. She has retained her mischievous sense of humour, becoming a role model for older women and an inspiration for younger ones.

Camilla: From Outcast To Queen Consort is both an extraordinary love story and a fascinating portrait of an increasingly confident Queen Consort. It is an essential read for anyone wanting a greater insight into the royal family.

About the author: Angela Levin is a distinguished journalist who has worked for the Observer, Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday and the Daily Telegraph and written three previous books on the royals. In recent years she has been in global demand as a royal expert, contributing to countless documentaries about the royal family, and is regularly seen and heard on UK TV and radio, including the BBC, ITV, Sky and Talk Radio. She lives in London. 

The Baltimore Boys (Marcus Goldman Series) by Joël Dicker

Paperback: Fresh from the staggering success of The Truth About The Harry Quebert Affair (2014), Marcus Goldman is struggling to write his third novel. A chance encounter in Florida throws him some inspiration from a surprising source: Alexandra Neville, the beautiful, phenomenally successful singer and Marcus’s first love. All at once, memories of his childhood come flooding back. Memories of a family torn apart by tragedy, and a once glorious legacy reduced to shame and ruin.

The Baltimore Boys. The Goldman Gang. That was what they called Marcus, and his cousins Hillel and Woody. Three brilliant young men with their whole lives ahead of them, before their kingdom crumbled beneath the weight of lies, jealousy and betrayal. For years, Marcus has struggled with the burdens of his past, but now, he must attempt to banish his demons and tell the real story of the Baltimore Boys.

The Baltimore is both the prequel and sequel to The Truth About The Harry Quebert Affair in the excellent and highly enjoyable global bestseller Marcus Goldman series.

The Baltimore Boys (2017) is translated from the French by Alison Anderson.

About the author: Joël Dicker was born in Geneva in 1985, where he studied Law. The Truth About The Harry Quebert Affair was nominated for the Prix Goncourt and won the Grand Prix du Roman de l’Académie Française and the Prix Goncourt des Lycéens. It has sold more than 3.6 million copies in 42 countries. The Baltimore Boys, at once a prequel and a sequel, has sold more than 750,000 in France. The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair is now a major SkyWitness series starring Patrick Dempsey.

About the translator: Alison Anderson worked as an English teacher in Switzerland, France, Greece and Croatia, before settling down as a consular agent and translator in the San Francisco Bay area for a number of years, during which she published two novels, Hidden Latitudes and Darwin’s Wink. In 2008, she moved back to Europe and has since been working as a full-time literary translator. Her third novel, The Summer Guest, was published in 2016. She has translated over ninety novels from French, including Muriel Barbery’s The Elegance of the Hedgehog and works by Nobel laureate JMG Le Clézio. She is currently living in a village in the French speaking part of Switzerland.

Rating: 5/5

Cloistered Carmel: A Brief History Of The Carmelite Nuns by Joachim Smet OCarm

Paperback: Father Joachim Smet, author of The Carmelites, the prestigious four volume history of the Carmelite Order, now presents in a more popular form the story of what many consider to be its heart: the enclosed nuns.

Cloistered Carmel: A Brief History Of The Carmelite Nuns (1986) chronicles the origins and development of this particular expression of the Order's contemplative charism: its subsequent history through its golden ear in the seventeenth century, its persecution by enlightened monarchs and liberal governments, and finally its revival in the second half of the present century (twentieth century).

The presence of women in Carmel is practically coeval with that of men, but initially less evident: in the Middle Ages women took the same vows as the friars but lived privately in their own homes, in what is called stabilitas, or attachment to a fixed habitation. 

Only after Nicolas V granted them papal recognition in 1452 did Carmelite Sisters regularly gather into communities, especially of the prior general, Blessed John Soreth (1394-1471).

Today, Cloistered Carmel takes its rightful place as the heart of the Order and in the Church.

About the author: Father Joachim Smet, Order of Carmelites, the oldest Carmelite in the Chicago Carmelite Province, died 4 October 2011. He was 95. Father Joachim was born in Chicago, IL, on 9 October 1915.

He entered the Province of the Most Pure Heart of Mary, Order of Carmelites, and was ordained a priest in 1942. He held a bachelor's degree in Library Science from the University of Chicago, a master's degree in Latin from the Catholic University of America, and a doctorate in Ecclesiastical History from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, Italy.

Among his assignments were Latin and English teacher at Mount Carmel High School in Chicago, IL, Assistant Novice Master at New Baltimore, PA, founding member of the Institutum Carmelitanum at the Collegio Internazionale de Sant' Alberto in Rome, Italy, editor of Carmelus, a journal of Carmelite Studies, President of the Institutum Carmelitanum in Rome; Assistant General of the Carmelite Order at the Carmelite General Curia in Rome. A gifted writer, he is well-known for his four-volume work The Carmelites and his Life of Saint Peter Thomas.

His other works are Familiar Matter of Today-Poems (2007), The Mirror of Carmel: A Brief History of the Carmelite Order, (2011), various publications on Carmelite Nuns, Carmelite Liturgy, Carmelite Libraries of Spain and Portugal and the Carmelites of Medieval England.

Queen Elizabeth II (1926-2022)

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The Struggle For Virtue Asceticism In A Modern Secular Society by Archbishop Averky (Taushev)

Paperback: Archbishop Averky addresses head on the question "What is asceticism?" 

He counters the many false understandings that exist and shows that the practice of authentic asceticism is integral to the spiritual life and the path to blessed communion with God.

In this heartfelt and insightful text, Archbishop Averky goes straight to the roots of our modern alienation from God and each other. He explains the central role of asceticism in leading a spiritual life and reveals a fully Christian understanding of it. We are shown that through the renewal of Gospel love the conscience is reawakened and that we can begin to experience true freedom: A freedom founded on the acquisition of virtue and the overcoming of vice, together with all its associated distractions. All of this is seen to demand effort: A Struggle for Virtue.

Based on lectures given in Europe after the end of the Second World War, these texts contained in The Struggle for Virtue (2014) are shown to be remarkably prophetic, as we see the outworking in our own day of the abandonment of Christian virtue described by Archbishop Averky.

The Struggle for Virtue can be purchased from Holy Trinity Publications (NY), Amazon UK/US and most bookstores and platforms.

About the author: Archbishop Averky (Taushev) (1906–1976) was the fourth abbot of Holy Trinity Monastery (Jordanville, NY). He was born in Imperial Russia, but had to leave the country with his family in the wake of the Russian Revolution. Living in Bulgaria, he was drawn to the monastic life, and soon became a monk and a priest. He taught and ministered in Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, and Germany, before being assigned in 1951 to teach at the Holy Trinity Seminary. He was consecrated a bishop, and after the death of Archbishop Vitaly (Maximenko) became the abbot of the monastery. As abbot, he was also the rector of Holy Trinity Seminary and was heavily involved in the formation of its curriculum and daily life. He was also praised by converts to the Orthodox faith such as Hieromonk Seraphim (Rose) for being a steadfast defender of traditional Orthodoxy. He wrote many commentaries on scripture and other works which are extensively read both in Russia and in the diaspora.

The World Does Not End At Their Housedoor