by Maggy Whitehouse | Jun 24, 2022 | Spirit
The Adulteress by Guercino. You can always tell kindergarten-level religion because it focuses on the Sins of the Others, focusing on making them behave better. Heck, if you can change laws to stop the Others sinning, you’ll go to heaven, right? Um… Kindergarten...
by Maggy Whitehouse | Dec 13, 2021 | Spirit
“Legend has it that on the night of the Nativity, whoever ventures out into great snows (or any bad weather) bearing a succulent bone for a lost and lamenting hound, a wisp of hay or some oats for a shivering horse, a warm cloak for a stranded wayfarer, a garland of...
by Maggy Whitehouse | Dec 3, 2021 | Spirit
Back in the 1970s, there was a phrase that annoyed me to the nth degree. It was ‘any relation to Mary?’ Which Mary? Mary Whitehouse, of course. It happened every single working day of my life – because I was a journalist and, in those days, you had to call...
by Maggy Whitehouse | Aug 17, 2021 | Spirit
In my comedy act I have a section on the House of Commons Christian Association and how its members voted for Trident nuclear submarines. When asked for a statement about their decision, the party line was ‘we’re looking forward to the return of the Prince...
by Maggy Whitehouse | Jul 20, 2021 | Spirit
We are a very polarised species right now. This probably comes from being over- and simultaneously under-informed. It’s very easy to blame the media and I’m sure that the media has changed a great deal since my days of reporting. However, we get the media we deserve...
by Maggy Whitehouse | Jul 17, 2021 | Spirit
If you have a name that contains only one different letter from that of someone famous, that person is always going to loom large in your life. The human brain will leap to the familiar every time. It might not be so bad if you were called George Glooney or Merl...
by Maggy Whitehouse | May 11, 2021 | Spirit
It was a wonderful course; you felt truly inspired and you got a whole load of tools to use to transform your life. This was the start point of new hope; something to feed and nurture you and bring you the prosperous, joyous, loving lifestyle you so dearly want. Just...
by Maggy Whitehouse | Mar 17, 2021 | Spirit
At the Edinburgh Festival 2018. If you’re a minister, you have two choices: you can be a transmitter of the Living God or you can be a museum curator. The museum curator believes that God hasn’t spoken to us since the Bible was written down and that God has no idea...
by Maggy Whitehouse | Dec 31, 2020 | Spirit
As 2021 starts, we are all – whether we like it or not – nearly one year in on our journey to Ithaka, the island home of Odysseus. Odysseus, one of the conquering heroes of the Trojan war, should have been home within a few months but the voyage took ten years....
by Maggy Whitehouse | Oct 13, 2020 | Spirit
Chapter Two (there’s a reason why it’s chapter two and not chapter one – trust me on this 🙂 ) It’s not a good idea to wake up in a mortuary. It’s likely that there will be an awful lot of screaming. In my experience, it’s not necessarily the mortuary...