Gérard, reflecting on where it had
probably all gone wrong in the na-
tions most populated by monuments
to St Paul, from Brexit to border
walls, found it almost irresistib-
le to credit the New English Bible
as the fulcrum of that great slide
into anomie which had made worship
seem like a delivery van of Trump.
Painfully familiar as he knew it
to be, the reflection had in com-
mon with all pain an acute sense
of originality, not an authorship
he particularly cherished. Rather,
he cared more for discovering its
presence in others, by which he
could confidently recognize them
as tightrope walkers out of Deso-
lation Row or The Waste Land, or
any line from any Nancy Mitford,
whom her lifelong friend, John
Julius Norwich, found thriving,
centuries before her birth -
It is - or was, before the appearance
of the New English Bible - refreshing
to note that St Paul, though he usual-
ly spoke with the tongues of men and
of angels, occasionally approximated
more to the language of Nancy Mitford:
How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious?
2 Corinthians 3:8
"In England," she had said, "you
don't need to be well-dressed. It
would be thought quite eccentric."
What has become of the KJV's anti-
cipatorily Mitfordian styling of a
recurring lynchpin of belief, is
evangelism's resistance ostensibly
to fashion, though its nemesis is
taste. What's a Corinthian to do?
Gérard knows better than to regret
the passings of fashions, any more
than Mitford ever esteemed them in
the first place. But in aggravated
assault upon taste, and its natural
sibling, wit, he does discern an
impeachable motivation, sufficient
to summon the ministration of the
spirit of the language. He could
not be dressed in anything better.
John Julius Norwich
Christmas Crackers
Being ten common-
place selections,
1970 - 1979
Allen Lane/Penguin
1980©
Nancy Mitford
A Talent to Annoy
Essays, Journalism
and Reviews,
1929 - 1968
Charlotte Mosley
editor
1986
Hodder & Stoughton
1996©
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