We are often asked what books are read aloud during our meals in the monastic refectory. At present at lunch we are reading The Silk Roads: A New History of the World by Peter Frankopan (2015), which adopts a non-eurocentric viewpoint to history.
At supper we have just begun
Edmund: In Search of England's Lost King by Francis Young (2018). a book of obvious relevance to our community. The title is deliberately ambiguous, referring both to the author's conclusion that the lost body of St Edmund can be found in the ruins of the abbey of Bury St Edmunds, and his attempt to uncover the central role once played by St Edmund in the very concept of "Englishness" and English identity as a nation. It is well worth reading and can be ordered
direct from the publisher or, as they say, at all good bookstores.