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	<title>Autobiography: religious &amp; spiritual &#8211; The Bell Bookshop</title>
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	<title>Autobiography: religious &amp; spiritual &#8211; The Bell Bookshop</title>
	<link>https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk</link>
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		<title>Letters on Living the Faith</title>
		<link>https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/product/letters-on-living-the-faith/</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Emma]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Thu, 12 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
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					<description><![CDATA[<p>A wonderful insight into the faith of C. S. Lewis - the leading writer on Christianity and author of the Narnia books - offering encouragement for everyone struggling with intellectual questions, personal conflicts, or ethical dilemmas.</p>]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>A wonderful insight into the faith of C. S. Lewis &#8211; the leading writer on Christianity and author of the Narnia books &#8211; offering encouragement for everyone struggling with intellectual questions, personal conflicts, or ethical dilemmas.</p>
<p>C. S. Lewis shared his thinking on his faith through his brilliant books, notably <em>Mere Christianity, </em>and his extraordinary number of letters to his friends and the general public. Originally published in three volumes, Letters on Living the Faith recasts selected letters into a brilliant themed guide to Lewis&#8217; thoughts. With chapters On Prayer, Meditations on Love, Spiritual Seekers, Christian Formation, Putting Faith into Practice, Theology &#038; Morality, The Bible, Psychology &#038; Spirituality, Catholicism, His own struggles and on Sorrow &#038; Death, Consolation &#038; Courage, plus insight into his views on Narnia.</p>
<p>This is a fabulous meditation on Faith and its role in C. S. Lewis&#8217; life. It reconfirms Lewis as a profound voice for Christianity today.</p>
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		<title>Memorial Days</title>
		<link>https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/product/memorial-days-2/</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Emma]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Thu, 05 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
				<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/?post_type=product&#038;p=53499</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[Many cultural and religious traditions expect those who are grieving to step away from the world. In contemporary life, we are more often met with red tape and to-do lists. This is exactly what happened to Geraldine Brooks when her partner of more than three decades, Tony Horwitz - just sixty years old and, to her knowledge, vigorous and healthy - collapsed and died on a Washington, D.C. sidewalk. After spending their early years together in conflict zones as foreign correspondents, Geraldine and Tony settled down to raise two boys on Martha's Vineyard. The life they built was one of meaningful work, good humour, and tenderness, as they spent their days writing and their evenings cooking family dinners or watching the sun set with friends at Lambert's Cove. But all of this came to an abrupt end when, on Memorial Day 2019, Geraldine received the phone call we all dread.]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><b>&#8216;Brooks tracks the geography of grief with patience and grace&#8230; a lifeline to others who will find themselves in this familiar, shattered landscape of grief&#8217; <i>Los Angeles Times</i><br /></b><br /><b>&#8216;Highly recommended to those who enjoy her novels, but also to anyone who needs to remember how joy and grief can (and should) coexist&#8217; Maggie Stiefvater</b><br /><b><br />A heartrending and beautiful memoir of sudden loss and a journey to peace, from the bestselling, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of? <i>Horse</i>.</b></p>
<p>Many cultural and religious traditions expect those who are grieving to step away from the world. In contemporary life, we are more often met with red tape and to-do lists. This is exactly what happened to Geraldine Brooks when her partner of more than three decades, Tony Horwitz &#8211; just sixty years old and, to her knowledge, vigorous and healthy &#8211; collapsed and died on a Washington, D. C. sidewalk.</p>
<p>After spending their early years together in conflict zones as foreign correspondents, Geraldine and Tony settled down to raise two boys on Martha&#8217;s Vineyard. The life they built was one of meaningful work, good humor, and tenderness, as they spent their days writing and their evenings cooking family dinners or watching the sun set with friends at Lambert&#8217;s Cove. But all of this came to an abrupt end when, on Memorial Day 2019, Geraldine received the phone call we all dread. The demands were immediate and many. Without space to grieve, the sudden loss became a yawning gulf.</p>
<p>Three years later, she booked a flight to a remote island off the coast of Australia with the intention of finally giving herself the time to mourn. In a shack on a pristine, rugged coast she often went days without seeing another person. There, she pondered the varied ways those of other cultures grieve, such as the people of Australia&#8217;s First Nations, the Balinese, and the Iranian Shiites, and what rituals of her own might help to rebuild a life around the void of Tony&#8217;s death.</p>
<p>A spare and profoundly moving memoir that joins the classics of the genre, <i>Memorial Days </i>is a portrait of a larger-than-life man and a timeless love between souls that exquisitely captures the joy, agony, and mystery of life.</p>
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		<title>The Bells of Nagasaki</title>
		<link>https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/product/the-bells-of-nagasaki/</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Emma]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Thu, 31 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
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					<description><![CDATA[Witness the best and the worst of humanity in the 'The Bells of Nagasaki' - the heart-rending first-hand account of one of the infamous events in history.]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><b>&#8216;A book that everyone should read&#8217; <i>The Times</i></b></p>
<p><b>A harrowing, heart-rending first-hand account of the bombing of Nagasaki &#8211; and the acts of human kindness left in its wake.</b></p>
<p>On 9th August 1945, the Japanese city of Nagasaki is hit by an atomic bomb. Forty thousand people are killed instantly. Doctor Takashi Nagai is not one of them.</p>
<p>Pulling himself, broken and bloodied, from the wreckage that was once the city&#8217;s university hospital, Takashi bundles together a tattered group of survivors. Doctors, nurses, students, each with their own losses, their own fears for the future: they work tirelessly at the impossible task of aiding the countless wounded and easing the deaths of those they cannot save. They remain determined to heal their fallen city, to find solace and hope among the rubble, even as a strange and growing sickness begins to claim them.</p>
<p>Eyewitness to one of the most fatal events in human history, this is Takashi&#8217;s record, written from his sickbed &#8211; a chilling historical document, and undeniable evidence of the capacity for human kindness.</p>
<p><b>Published now in the UK to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.</b></p>
<p><b>WITH AN INTRODUCTION FROM RICHARD LLOYD PARRY</b></p>
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		<title>Bringing in the sheaves</title>
		<link>https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/product/bringing-in-the-sheaves/</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Emma]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Thu, 10 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
				<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/?post_type=product&#038;p=47365</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[After a life of sex, drugs, and the Communards, the Reverend Richard Coles devoted himself to God and Christianity. So what is life like for the parson in Britain today? From his ordination, through Advent and Christmas to Lent and Easter, Reverend Coles gives us a unique insight into his daily experience in the ministry, with all the joy, hope, drama, and difficulty that entails.]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><b>&#8216;The best vicar ever&#8217; &#8211; Caitlin Moran</b></p>
<p><b>THE NO.1 <i>SUNDAY TIMES </i>BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE CANON CLEMENT SERIES, THE REVEREND RICHARD COLES<br /></b><br />After a life of sex, drugs and the Communards, recounted in his acclaimed memoir <i>Fathomless Riches</i>, the Reverend Richard Coles devoted himself to God and Christianity. So what is life like for the parson in Britain today? </p>
<p>From his ordination, through Advent and Christmas to Lent and Easter, Reverend Coles gives us a unique insight into his daily experience in the ministry, with all the joy, hope, drama and difficulty that entails. Written with extraordinary charm and compassion, <i>Bringing in the Sheaves</i> will inspire and inform all who read it.</p>
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		<title>Memorial days</title>
		<link>https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/product/memorial-days/</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Emma]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Thu, 03 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
				<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/?post_type=product&#038;p=47226</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[Many cultural and religious traditions expect those who are grieving to step away from the world. In contemporary life, we are more often met with red tape and to-do lists. This is exactly what happened to Geraldine Brooks when her partner of more than three decades, Tony Horwitz - just sixty years old and, to her knowledge, vigorous and healthy - collapsed and died on a Washington, D.C. sidewalk. After spending their early years together in conflict zones as foreign correspondents, Geraldine and Tony settled down to raise two boys on Martha's Vineyard. The life they built was one of meaningful work, good humor, and tenderness, as they spent their days writing and their evenings cooking family dinners or watching the sun set with friends at Lambert's Cove. But all of this came to an abrupt end when, on Memorial Day 2019, Geraldine received the phone call we all dread.]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><b>A heartrending and beautiful memoir of sudden loss and a journey to peace, from the bestselling, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of? <i>Horse</i>.</b></p>
<p>Many cultural and religious traditions expect those who are grieving to step away from the world. In contemporary life, we are more often met with red tape and to-do lists. This is exactly what happened to Geraldine Brooks when her partner of more than three decades, Tony Horwitz &#8211; just sixty years old and, to her knowledge, vigorous and healthy &#8211; collapsed and died on a Washington, D. C. sidewalk.</p>
<p>After spending their early years together in conflict zones as foreign correspondents, Geraldine and Tony settled down to raise two boys on Martha&#8217;s Vineyard. The life they built was one of meaningful work, good humor, and tenderness, as they spent their days writing and their evenings cooking family dinners or watching the sun set with friends at Lambert&#8217;s Cove. But all of this came to an abrupt end when, on Memorial Day 2019, Geraldine received the phone call we all dread. The demands were immediate and many. Without space to grieve, the sudden loss became a yawning gulf.</p>
<p>Three years later, she booked a flight to a remote island off the coast of Australia with the intention of finally giving herself the time to mourn. In a shack on a pristine, rugged coast she often went days without seeing another person. There, she pondered the various ways in which cultures grieve and what rituals of her own might help to rebuild a life around the void of Tony&#8217;s death.</p>
<p>A spare and profoundly moving memoir that joins the classics of the genre, <i>Memorial Days </i>is a portrait of a larger-than-life man and a timeless love between souls that exquisitely captures the joy, agony, and mystery of life.</p>
<p>*number 5 in the <i>New York Times</i> hardback non-fiction bestseller chart February 12th 2025</p>
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		<title>Cloistered</title>
		<link>https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/product/cloistered-2/</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Emma]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Thu, 06 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
				<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/?post_type=product&#038;p=46646</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[Here is a memoir of twelve years as a contemplative nun in a silent monastery. 'Cloistered' takes the reader deep into the hidden world of a traditional Carmelite monastery as it approaches the third Millennium and tells the story of an intense personal journey into and out of an enclosed life of poverty, chastity and obedience. Finding an apparently perfect world at Akenside Priory, and a haven after the loss of her father, Catherine Coldstream trusts herself to a group of twenty silent women, believing she is trusting herself to God. As the beauty and mystery of an ancient way of life enfolds her, she surrenders herself wholly to its power, only to find that all is not as it seems behind the Order's closed doors.]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><b>&#8216;Evocative&#8217; Sarah Perry</b><br /><b>&#8216;Immersive&#8217; Katherine May<br />&#8216;Profoundly moving&#8217; Mark Haddon</p>
<p>Discover Catherine Coldstream&#8217;s compelling account of life as a nun in the 1990s, and the dramatic events which led to her flight from the monastery.</b></p>
<p>After the shock of her father&#8217;s death, and with the rest of her family scattered, Catherine was left grieving and alone at twenty-four. A search for meaning led her to the nuns of Akenside Priory.</p>
<p>Here she found a tight-knit community of dedicated women and peace in an ancient way of life. But as she surrenders to her final vows, all is not as it seems behind the Priory&#8217;s closed doors.</p>
<p>Catherine comes to realise that divine authority is mediated through flawed and all-too-human channels. She is faced with a dilemma: should she protect the serenity she has found, or speak out?</p>
<p><b>&#8216;Gripping? A rich memoir&#8217; <i>Daily Telegraph</i></p>
<p>&#8216;Absorbing and beautifully written&#8217; <i>Financial Times</i></b></p>
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		<title>Wayfarer</title>
		<link>https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/product/wayfarer-2/</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Emma]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Thu, 30 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
				<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/?post_type=product&#038;p=45341</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[<h2><strong>Shortlisted for the Edward Stanford Travel Book of the Year 2025</strong></h2><h2>A <em>Financial Times</em> best summer travel book of 2024</h2><p>'A powerfully delicate book of love, loss and discovery, along paths of emotional understanding and physical wonder.' <strong>Raynor Winn</strong></p>]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<h2><strong>Shortlisted for the Edward Stanford Travel Book of the Year 2025</strong></h2>
<h2>A <em>Financial Times</em> best summer travel book of 2024</h2>
<p>&#8216;A powerfully delicate book of love, loss and discovery, along paths of emotional understanding and physical wonder.&#8217; <strong>Raynor Winn</strong></p>
<p>On an assignment to walk the most famous pilgrimage in the world &#8211; the Camino de Santiago, in northern Spain &#8211; Phoebe Smith somehow lost her way.</p>
<p>Having spent a lifetime exploring unfamiliar places, she quit her dream job, ended her long-term relationship and headed home to North Wales to discover the point to? everything.</p>
<p>In her search for answers she found herself &#8211; quite by accident &#8211; walking some of Britain&#8217;s oldest pilgrim paths. And by following these old ways, she ended up confronting past traumas that she thought she had laid to rest.</p>
<p>But while it follows holy trails, this is not a book about religion. From losing her mother as a teenager to surviving toxic relationships, Phoebe offers an unflinchingly honest look at her battle with an eating disorder, depression, and the pitfalls of newfound singledom.</p>
<p>Skilfully weaving together Phoebe&#8217;s own story with those of countless travellers past and present, <em>Wayfarer</em> reveals how nature and place can heal past wounds, offering a pathway to salvation she&#8217;d never thought existed.</p>
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		<title>The spirituality gap</title>
		<link>https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/product/the-spirituality-gap/</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Emma]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Thu, 16 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
				<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/?post_type=product&#038;p=45153</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[<p>A warm, curious and thoughtful exploration of what spirituality looks like in the modern worldÂ </p>]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong>&#8216;A beguiling exploration of what contemporary spiritual practices might offer to a world that&#8217;s lost its religion&#8217;  Dr Sharon Blackie, author of  </strong><em><strong>If Women Rose Rooted</strong>  </em></p>
<p>Abi Millar is looking for something. She grew up in an evangelical church, but after she lost her faith, she found herself searching for spirituality in other places. Torn between the logical part of her brain and the part that secretly believes in magic, and in the wake of a great loss, she wondered whether her crisis of faith was part of a larger story: at a time when more and more people in the Western world are moving away from organised religion, what does spirituality look like?</p>
<p><em>The Spirituality Gap</em>  follows Abi as she  receives a shamanic healing, drinks ayuahuasca, delves into astrology, experiences an awakening in a lake, and attends an atheist church. Written with great warmth, curiosity and humour, it explores our post-religious world from the perspective of someone who is neither a &#8216;spiritual but not religious&#8217; hippie nor an angry atheist. Throughout, she asks: how can we embrace ritual in our own lives even if we are wary of religion?</p>
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		<title>Hope</title>
		<link>https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/product/hope-3/</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Emma]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Tue, 14 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
				<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/product/hope-3/</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[Pope Francis originally intended this book to appear only after his death, but the needs of our times and the 2025 Jubilee Year of Hope have moved him to make this precious legacy available now. 'Hope' is the first autobiography in history ever to be published by a Pope. Written over six years, this complete autobiography starts in the early years of the twentieth century, with Pope Francis's Italian roots and his ancestors' courageous migration to Latin America, continuing through his childhood, the enthusiasms and preoccupations of his youth, his vocation, adult life, and the whole of his papacy up to the present day.]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><b>The groundbreaking, intimate and inspiring memoir from Pope Francis.</p>
<p>Books of the Year 2025: <i>The Times, Telegraph, Guardian, Independent, Financial Times, New Statesman</i></p>
<p>&#8216;Remarkable&#8217; <i>Guardian </i></p>
<p>&#8216;Elegant and joyful&#8217; <i>Financial Times </i></b></p>
<p>Pope Francis originally intended this exceptional book to appear only after his death, but the needs of our times and the 2025 Jubilee Year of Hope have moved him to make this precious legacy available now.</p>
<p>HOPE is the first autobiography in history ever to be published by a Pope. Written over six years, this complete autobiography starts in the early years of the twentieth century, with Pope Francis&#8217;s Italian roots and his ancestors&#8217; courageous migration to Latin America, continuing through his childhood, the enthusiasms and preoccupations of his youth, his vocation, adult life, and the whole of his papacy up to the present day.</p>
<p>In recounting his memories with intimate narrative force (not forgetting his own personal passions), Pope Francis deals unsparingly with some of the crucial moments of his papacy and writes candidly, fearlessly and prophetically about some of the most important and controversial questions of our present times: war and peace (including the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East), migration, environmental crisis, social policy, the position of women, sexuality, technological developments, the future of the Church and of religion in general.</p>
<p>HOPE includes a wealth of revelations, anecdotes and illuminating thoughts. It is a thrilling and very human memoir, moving and sometimes funny, which represents the &#8216;story of a life&#8217; and, at the same time, a touching moral and spiritual testament that will fascinate readers throughout the world and will be Pope Francis&#8217;s legacy of hope for future generations.</p>
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