PHOTO: JOHAN PERSSON
Dancing at Lughnasa – one of a number of faith-themed dramas currently playing 21
COLUMN
Joanna Moorhead ‘In the case of Clare and Francis, it seems there was a fair bit of yin and yang in the relationship’ / 7
CONTENTS 20 MAY 2023 // VOL. 277 NO. 9503
FEATURES
4 / Behaving like a Borgia Rishi Sunak’s government is only just clinging to office – yet there may also be trouble ahead for the leader of the Labour Party / BY JULIA LANGDON
6 / Inside the Catholic soul George Orwell’s anti-Catholicism coexisted with a lively interest in religion, which led to a meeting in 1932 with the Jesuit priest C.C. Martindale / BY D.J. TAYLOR
8 / Seeing the world lit up in wonder In the seventh of our conversion stories an American studying at Oxford set out on a search for truth that ended in the Catholic Church / BY LAUREN SPOHN
10 / The Tablet Interview: Ben Goldsmith The farmer and financier says the loss of his daughter transformed his relationship with both his family and the natural world / BY SUZI FEAY
12 / Who dares to take sides in Ireland’s wars? During the civil war, the Church’s leaders moved decisively to give their support to the Free State government / BY OLIVER RAFFERTY
BOOKS / PAGE 17
Christopher Bray The Crisis of Democratic Capitalism MARTIN WOLF Liberal Capitalist Democracy: The God That Failed KRISHNAN NAYAR Fiona Sampson Sleeping on Islands: A Life in Poetry ANDREW MOTION Patrick Hudson Speed reading on Ukraine Morag MacInnes Close to Home MICHAEL MAGEE
REGULARS Letters 14 The Living Spirit 15 Word from the Cloisters 16 Puzzles 16 From the Vineyard 30 Glimpses of Eden 30
NEWS
23 / The Church in the World / News briefing 24 / Appeal to Pope over Belarus crackdown
26 / View from Rome 27 / News from Britain and Ireland / News briefing 28 / Churches celebrate Revelations of Divine Love
COVER: BRIDGE OF SIGHS, OXFORD; ALAMY, ROBERT HARDING
ARTS / PAGE 20 Theatre The return of faith to the stage MARK LAWSON Cinema Plan 75 ANNA MOORE Television Salinger LUCY LETHBRIDGE
For more features, news, analysis and comment, visit www.thetablet.co.uk
20 MAY 2023 | THE TABLET | 3
