Runcie, James – The Bell Bookshop

Tell me good things

Emma — Thu, 04 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

‘A tender memoir of the challenges of bereavement … I closed this book wishing I’d met her – but feeling that I almost had’ Daily Telegraph_______________ A memoir of a husband’s grief, and an unforgettable portrait of a marriage; a profound examination of sorrow, and a great celebration of love – by the Sunday Times-bestselling author James RuncieJames Runcie’s wife Marilyn Imrie died in August 2020. Their thirty-five year marriage had been miraculously happy – until, in the last two years of Marilyn’s life, she descended into the pain and humiliation of motor neurone disease. In the wake of her death, Runcie stumbled in the dark. How do you make sense of the decline and death of the most alive person you have ever met? And how do you go about building a life worth living in their absence? In Tell Me Good Things, Runcie tells the story of Marilyn’s illness and death – in all its moments of tragedy, rage, farce and surrealness – while painting a vivid portrait of her life and their marriage: a partnership defined by a shared love of beauty, conviviality and storytelling. And during that first year of loss, he awakens to the strange paradox of grief: that the way to survive Marilyn’s death is to understand how very good she was at living. Tender, funny, profound and deeply true, Tell Me Good Things is an unforgettable story of life before death – and love beyond the grave.‘A touchingly honest and tender memoir’ The Times ‘A wonderful addition to the literature of bereavement’ Sunday Times

The great passion

Emma — Thu, 02 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

A SUNDAY TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR_______________‘A masterpiece’ SCOTSMAN‘A wise, refreshing novel … Runcie has an expert imagination’ HILARY MANTEL‘A masterclass in writing about the power of music and grief’ THE TIMES, 100 best books for summer 2022_______________Love and Death.Grief and Joy.Music that lasts forever.Leipzig, 1726. Eleven-year-old Stefan Silbermann has just lost his mother. Sent to Leipzig to train as a singer in the St Thomas Church choir, he is rescued from his homesickness and grief by the Cantor: Johann Sebastian Bach himself. Stefan is brought into the Bach household as an apprentice – until a devastating loss brings his period of sanctuary to a close. Something is happening, though. In the depths of his loss, the Cantor is writing a new work. As Stefan watches the work rehearsed, he realises he is witness to the creation of one of the most extraordinary pieces of music that has ever been written._______________‘Brilliant … Readers will be enriched by this novel and its glimpse at genius’ The Times, Historical Fiction of the Month‘Warmly, reverently, Runcie brings alive what it is like to take part, for the very first time, in one of the most extraordinary pieces of music ever written’ Daily Telegraph_______________

Tell Me Good Things

Emma — Thu, 24 Nov 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The Great Passion

Emma — Thu, 31 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000

‘A masterpiece’ SCOTSMAN‘A wise, refreshing novel, and a touching human story … Runcie has an expert imagination’ HILARY MANTELLove and Death.Grief and Joy.Music that lasts forever.Leipzig, 1726. Eleven-year-old Stefan Silbermann, a humble organ-maker’s son, has just lost his mother. Sent to Leipzig to train as a singer in the St Thomas Church choir, he struggles to stay afloat in a school where the teachers are as casually cruel as the students.Stefan’s talent draws the attention of the Cantor – Johann Sebastian Bach. Eccentric, obsessive and kind, he rescues Stefan from the miseries of school by bringing him into his home as an apprentice. Soon Stefan feels that this ferociously clever, chaotic family is his own. But when tragedy strikes, Stefan’s period of sanctuary in their household comes to a close.Something is happening, though. In the depths of his loss, the Cantor is writing a new work: the Saint Matthew Passion, to be performed for the first time on Good Friday. As Stefan watches the work rehearsed, he realises he is witness to the creation of one of the most extraordinary pieces of music that has ever been written.‘Brilliant … Readers will be enriched by this novel and its glimpse at genius’ The Times, Historical Fiction of the Month ‘Warmly, reverently, Runcie brings alive what it is like to take part, for the very first time, in one of the most extraordinary pieces of music ever written’ Daily Telegraph

Sidney Chambers & Forgiveness Of Sins

Emma — Thu, 07 Apr 2016 00:00:00 +0000

The loveable full-time priest and part-time detective, Canon Sidney Chambers, continues his sleuthing adventures in 1960's Cambridge. On a snowy Thursday morning in Lent 1964, a stranger seeks sanctuary in Grantchester's church, convinced he has murdered his wife. On a family holiday in Florence, Sidney is accused of the theft of a priceless painting. Meanwhile, on the home front, Sidney's new curate Malcolm seems set to become rather irritatingly popular with the parish; his baby girl Anna learns to walk and talk; Hildegard longs to get an au pair and Sidney is offered a promotion. Entertaining, suspenseful, thoughtful, moving and deeply humane, these six stories are bound to delight the clerical detective's many fans.