Monthly Archives: October 2015
An appreciative reader
” I absolutely loved “Pope of Good Promise” which I read in hardly more than a long single sitting. It’s beautifully written, hugely engaging and built on what must be a unique well of experience and knowledge. I loved the way it’s written as an intensely personal journey, and in particular the way you bend over backwards to be fair and balanced to all concerned, sharing your own doubts and intuitions. You took a risk in writing about your transcendental experience in the Basque Country but you carry it off …
John Cavadini review of Pope of Good Promise in The Tablet
Francis: Pope of good promise 15 October 2015 by Jimmy Burns, reviewed by John Cavadini In his lively, sometimes compelling biography, Jimmy Burns sets out to offer his reader “fresh insight into a key spiritual figure of our times”, cautioning the reader that, nevertheless, this is “not a hagiography”. It is not, he assures us, the story of a “picture-book saint”, but of a “complex man” with a “mixed record”. For example, the book’s most searching chapter, “The Dirty War”, sifts through the evidence for the Jesuit provincial Jorge Bergoglio’s …
Catholic Herald Book Review
Book review: From ‘little devil’ to rescuer of fallen women by Jane Taylor posted Thursday, 8 Oct 2015 The future Pope Francis greets the faithful in Buenos Aires in 2009 (AP) This latecomer on the Pope Francis biography scene is fresh, vivid and beautifully crafted Francis: Pope of Good Promise by Jimmy Burns, Constable, £25 With so much now on record about Pope Francis and at least three weighty biographies by well-known Catholic writers published during the past two years, the question has to be: what’s new here? Jimmy Burns …
Good crowd at Wigtown
Nice appreciative crowd at the wonderful Wigtown literary festival joined me on Saturday October 3rd to hear some thoughts on Pope Francis and buy my book! We were blessed with beautiful weather and I was privileged to have Rod Pryde as my interviewer.Rod has returned to his native Scotland after working for several years in Spain for the British Council. I was delighted to meet him and know that as well as settling in one the most beautiful parts of the UK, he has now also become involved in the …
12 people who ruined Catalonia
From a haughty count to a tax fraudster, via a very vengeful dictator. By Jimmy Burns 9/29/15, 5:36 PM CET Updated 10/2/15, 11:54 AM CET As pro-independence parties win a majority in the local Parliament but fall short of 50 percent of the popular vote, we name 12 people responsible for Spain’s potential constitutional crisis. 1. Wilfred the Hairy: Perhaps the Knight of the White Moon who defeated Don Quixote on Barceloneta beach was really Wilfred the Hairy — Guifré el Pilós in Catalan. The legendary 9th Count of Barcelona, …
