Pouring rain and a crowded cathedral...

...on a November morning. I went to Westminster Cathedral for Mass because I thought it might be useful to hand out some leaflets about the Towards Advent Festival to people as they left (Saturday November 24th, Westminster Cathedral Hall: BE THERE!). I certainly chose the right day - it was the annual Catenians' Mass (all Catholic groups and guilds etc have All Souls Masses for deceased members etc at the Cathedral in Nov.)  and there were hundreds and hundreds and HUNDREDS of them, all with their wives and families, packing out the Cathedral.  The Catenian Association is a main supporter of the Festival, really its backbone  and our excellent chairman Brian Towler is a Catenian...the Mass was glorious, with the choir in excellent voice...

I handed out all the leaflets to people as they poured out after Mass, and could have handed out more, wished  I'd brought twice as many...and then  went round to the Cathedral Hall, which was jammed with Catenians swapping news, and was welcomed by many friends. They are a super bunch, among them several who are v. active with the Catholic Union: much talk of  current events,  religious freedom, the Govt's ghastly plans for new law on marriage etc.

Sent off FINAL corrected version of my latest book to the publisher.  Computers have changed the whole relationship with publishers: chatty lunches, the excitement of the arrival of the first proofs, the skills of printers, all gone, and now it's emails back and forth, and the author doing all sorts of techno-things herself...this book will perhaps be among my last to emerge as a book at all, as over the next years it will all be downloads and read-it-on-your-ipod. It feels bleak, like getting a voucher at Christmas instead of a parcel, or chatting to a friend on the phone instead of meeting over a drink.