A History of St Louis Abbey

Fr Timothy Horner (C38) has written a history of the foundation of a monastery and school in St Louis in Missouri, USA in 1955 - In Good Soil: The Founding of Saint Louis Priory and School 1954-1973  [517 pages, Saint Louis Abbey Press].

Fr Timothy describes the Chapter at Ampleforth on 17 January 1955 - the decision to accept the invitation to found the monastery followed a crucial speech made by Fr Sebastian Lambert (OA1902, died 1961), The Chapter voted proportionally four to one in favour. On 3 October 1955 Fr Columba Cary-Elwes (OA22, died 1994), Fr Luke Rigby (B41) and Fr Timothy Horner left Ampleforth, and at 3.50pm on 19 October 1955 the three founding monks  reached St Louis to make the new foundation. Nearly a year later on 6 September 1956 St Louis Priory School started. On 25 July 1973 the Priory was granted independence by Ampleforth. The early pages of the book convey much of the atmosphere and humour of Abbot Herbert Byrne’s Ampleforth of the 1950s.

Copies of In Good Soil obtainable from the Ampleforth Abbey Bookshop, Ampleforth Abbey, York YO62 4EY, tel and fax 01439 766778, bookshop@ampleforth.org.uk.

Dr James Le Fanu (B67) has won a Los Angeles Times book prize for ‘The Rise and Fall of Modern Medicine’.  He writes the Doctor’s Diary in The Daily Telegraph [The Daily Telegraph, 2 May 2001].

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Peter Bergen - author of ‘Holy War’ concerning Bin Laden.

ter Bergen (W80) has written a book ‘Holy War, Inc: Inside the Secret World of Osama bin Laden’ [published in Britain by Weidenfield and Nicolson £18.99]. When he first completed the book in August 2001 an initial print run of about 20,000 was arranged, but by the afternoon of 11 September 2001 the print run was increased to a quarter of a million, and later nearer a half million for the first printing, with planned second and third editions to follow. The book has been translated into 14 languages. In November Peter was appearing daily on TV shows to discuss the book. The book was featured on BBC Newsnight Review on 16 November 2002, in a discussion in which Charles Wheeler spoke of the value of the book.  The book was serialised in The Daily Telegraph [12 and 13 Nov 2001]. Peter Bergen was the first Western journalist to interview Osama bin Laden. Peter Bergen has worked with CNN for about 20 years, but since early 2001 works with them on a contract basis as an independent TV producer.

Prof Fred Halliday’s (T63) book ‘Two Hours that Shook the World - September 11, 2001: Causes and Consequences’ [Saqi]. Fred Halliday has been Professor of International Relations at the London School of Economics since 1985. In Two Hours that Shook the World Professor Halliday dispels the idea that the Muslim and non-Muslim world are poised for conflict. He explains the cause and rise of Islamic fundamentalism, and how terror became an instrument of political and military conflict. Fred Halliday has spoken on a number of TV programmes on the war. He is a member of the Advisory Council of the Labour Party’s Foreign Policy Centre. Other recent books include The World at 2000 [2000], Nation and Religion in the Middle East [2000] and Arabia without Sultans.

Fr Jock Dalrymple (E75) is one of the three editors of Press On: Michael Hollings - his life and witness [published 2001]. Fr Michael Hollings [1921-1997] was a cousin of Fr Jock Dalrymple, and he writes a number of the chapters. Among those featured in the book is Fr George Forbes OSB MBE MC (OA21, died 1991) who was a wartime chaplain when Michael Hollings was in Italy.

Charles Farrell (O37) Reflections, 1939﷓1945 - A Scots Guards Officer in Training and War (Pentland Press 2000).

Sir David Goodall (W50) Ryedale Pilgrimages - paintings of about 40 churches with a description. Profits are being given to the Leonard Cheshire homes £14.95.

Joe Simpson (A78) has written a book entitled “Beckoning Silence” (Jonathan Cape). Joe Simpson is speaking at the Royal Geographical Society on 10 January 2002. (details - tel 020 7836 1321).  Joe gives talks to many audiences all over the world. He was featured in the main story of “The Times Weekend” on Saturday 29 December 2001, under the title “No Ordinary Joe”.  The top half of the page had a photograph of Joe standing against a brick wall. The article is written by an amateur climber called Rosie Thomas. She  writes “Lots of people know about Joe Simpson. He’s the climber who fell off the high mountain in Perus and smashed his leg. His climbing partner, Simon Yates, was trying to lower him to safety but Joe ended up dangling over an ice cliff that neither of them had seen in the darkness. Simon could’nt haul him up or hold the weight any longer, and was slowly being pulled off the mountain as his anchor gave way. In the end Yates had to choose either to cut the rope and hope to survive himself, or face the certainty that they were both going to die. He cut the rope and Joe plunged into a deep crevasse” Joe Simpson has described this experience of survival in the book “Touching the Void” , which won the Boardman Tanker Award and the NCR Award for non-fiction  - and Tom Cruise bought the film rights.  Rosie Thomas interviewed Joe in his Sheffield home - “a white-walled cottage on the outskirks of Sheffield. Extracts from his book “Beckoning Silence” were serialised in “The Times Weekend” on 29 December 2001. 

Thomas Pakenham (E51) 'The Mountains of Rosselas' - this book was originally published in the 1950s when Thomas Pakenham travelled in Ethiopia aged 22. In the late 1990s he returned, and this new book incorporates his first journey with this new journey.  Illustrated with many striking photographs.

MarkPaterson (OA71, died 9 April 2000) Estandel [Sessions of York 2000] B a book of poems.

Piers Paul Read (W57) has written a new novel 'Alice in Exile' [Weidenfield £12.99 September 2001]. A review by Rachel Cusk in The Daily Telegraph [29 October 2001] wrote that 'this is amiable historical fiction written out of a modern sensibility, and hence full of emotional, sensual and political awareness'. 'Alice Fry is a girl born half a century too soon, who succeeds in overcoming some formidable opposition - the British aristocracy, Communism, the social mores of the post-Victorian world'.

Ivo (E57) and Pamela Zaluski: 'Mozart in Italy' [Peter Owen 1999] chronicles the journey of the teenage musical prodigy and his father to Italy, going to Milan, Florence, Rome, Venice, Bologna and Naples, and coming into contact with many of the most important musical figures of the day.  At this time the young Mozart, not yet aged 16, composed the operas Mitridate, rè di Ponto, Lucio Silla and Ascanio in Alba.