The "Daily Telegraph" Comfort - Tapa dura

Here is a new anthology from Christopher Howse- a sequel to his hugely successful books Best Sermons Ever and Best Spiritual Reading Ever. The book contains over eighty extracts, in prose and verse, from spiritual writers of a Christian background in the English language tradition. By this is meant British and American or classical authors, whose writings were adopted by that tradition. The extracts are varied with shorter prayers and poems, as in Christopher Howse's previous books. The most celebrated book of comfort to date was published by Elizabeth Goudge thirty years ago. It is an area in which women writers have been particularly strong, and in this new book women writers feature prominently. These include Emily Dickinson, Jane Austen, Teresa of Avila and Catherine of Siena. Comfort is a rich concept and should not be taken as a simple thing. It is not all baa-lambs and daffodils and is sometimes at its most stirring when the outlook is black. Howse opens his inspiring new collection with a brilliant introduction in which he shows the origin of the word comfort and how its true meaning has been traduced in common usage. Here is a bracing book for a generation that thinks that Prozac is the panacea for most ills.

Christopher Howse was until recently opinion editor of The Daily Telegraph. He writes regularly for that newspaper but is also now writing the newspaper's history for its centenary year. He writes regular columns for The Spectator under various pseudonymns.