Tag Archives: James Runcie

Ritual Appreciation

Several years ago I discovered the Grantchester mystery series by James Runcie They follow a young British cleric in the years immediately after World War II.

The series delves more deeply into purpose and meaning than many “detective” type stories. We know from the beginning of the series that Sidney Chambers is a veteran of fighting in the war. The stories are more than mysteries. They highlight some purpose or higher meaning.

In the latest book, The Road to Grantchester, Runcie provides the background for Sidney’s decision to become an Anglican minister. As we might expect, Sydney suffered horrible wartime experiences fighting in Italy during the war. The first part of the book recounts those experiences, made more terrible by the minimalist reporting style.

The next part of the book recounts his spiritual journey as he chooses and trains for the ministry, a surprise to his not particularly religious family and friends.

One of the insights of the book is how rituals sometimes sustain us in hard times when we are simply hanging on. Great knowledge or insight escapes us. We mumble the 23rd Psalm or the prayer Jesus taught his disciples.

In those desperate times when we may doubt any purpose in the universe or in our lives, ritual can offer us a way to survive. We overcome feelings with a kind of faith that hangs on to time-refined wisdom, sustaining us as it has sustained generations before us.

When Story Explores How We Became What We Are

I recently discovered two fictional series, one in the detective genre, the other in the mystery category. Ruth Rendell’s Inspector Wexford series and James Runcie’s Grantchester series begin in the mid-twentieth century, a decade or two after World War II.

Critics describe both, as going beyond their genres. They are immersed in the social and cultural changes of their eras as they follow the main characters through time. They appeal to me for that reason.

My own novels have changed. In the beginning they tended toward romance, then women’s fiction, but the characters were wedded to the time period of the seventies and eighties. They explored a time period not considered either historical or contemporary. The era of near history is my niche, because it lends clues for how we became what we are in the present. In addition, nobody writes truly “contemporary” fiction. As one is writing the words, the present becomes past.

Time features even more in the series I’m writing now, which follow a man’s life from the late 1970’s into whatever near present I’m able to reach. Few would deny the tremendous changes during this time period.

Why did the changes happen? How did they develop? What do the changes mean to us today? What do they mean to relationships and families? What do they mean to our belief systems?

Another change occurs, too. The novelist is changed as a result of considering the changes to his/her protagonists. It makes for an interesting journey.