Friends, We have five great pieces today.
Please enjoy. — Ben
Victoria Walker at
shares a fantastic biographical sketch of C.S. Lewis from his youth until his post-WWI years at Oxford and membership in the university’s Inklings, an intimate literary group that included his close friend J.R.R. Tolkien, and to which “Lewis first read aloud The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.”Should such privilege allow one to forget Lewis’ wartime duty, Walker reminds us: “On the 16th of October, [1916,] Lewis joined the 3rd Battalion, Somerset Light Infantry, and by his nineteenth birthday, the 29th of November, was on the front line at the Somme[,]” one of the deadliest battles in history with over one million dead or wounded in just 4.5 months.
Whether you enjoy Lewis’ fiction and/or writings such as Mere Christianity—I also recommend The Four Loves—you’ll enjoy Victoria’s fine look at Lewis, which also promises more to come. A great read.
PHOTO OF THE DAY
’s The Rodent Conundrum will get into your head and take you to the edge. From there, well, you’ll have to see for yourself.This is a great short story – the sort of hard-hitting fiction that Jimmy produces daily.
Jimmy understands human beings – it's as plain as that. I often come to the end of one of his stories relating to his characters in a sort of "S-, man, that's exactly what I was thinking" way. Jimmy plants that seed.
Note – Jimmy posted this piece on August 7 – a reminder that when you find a writer you like, dig through his or her archives. There’s gold everywhere.
Poetic prose. Phenomenal photography. The sound of snowfall. Frozen bubbles.
Check out
’s First Snowfall.When the temperature falls below 20 degrees Fahrenheit (-7 Celcius), I’m blowing some frozen bubbles.
brings us Europa Regina, another original Rothwell.With his reliable research acumen and use of exquisite maps, Mikey takes us on a journey through time—from Greek mythology to the Middle Ages to the European Union—to explain the meaning of the term and concept of Europe, as well as how they evolved in cartography.
A must-read with some fun Easter Eggs to boot. Read carefully.
I read each post in Marc Typo’s
series – letters to his newborn son. In Tell Them Where You’re From, Marc writes:This weekend, we took a short trip to New York and New Jersey to meet our friends and family who haven’t met Myles. It reminded me of the beauty of raising a son who belongs to two different, yet beautiful, worlds.
I enjoyed listening to Marc read his heartfelt letter. The audio is part of the video, which offers a unique peek at young Master Myles.
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Want to read some more? Enjoy one of these recent posts:
How I Barely Survived My First (12) Days on Substack
Creating When Words Confound You
Victoria always puts so much love into those pieces.
M.E., Rothwell, CBE, OBE, the pleasure was mine -- and easy to decide.