memoir | Anita Mathias: Dreaming Beneath the Spires

Thoughts on Writing my Just-published Memoir, & the Prologue to “Rosaries, Reading, Secrets”

Anita Mathias — Thu, 08 Sep 2022 17:30:44 +0000

Writing a memoir awakens fierce memories of the past. For the past is not dead; it’s not even past, as William Faulkner observed. So what does one do with this undead past? Forgive. Forgive, huh? Forgive. Let it go. Again and again. For, after all, this world is one of insistent goodness, insistent abundance. Flowers […]

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Rosaries, Reading, Secrets: A Catholic Childhood in India. My new memoir

Anita Mathias — Thu, 01 Sep 2022 19:10:27 +0000

Friends, I have written a new memoir. I would be so grateful for your support. It is available wherever Amazon sells books, Amazon.com, of course, as well as Amazon.co.uk. Here are some reviews from distinguished writers A beautifully written account of a childhood. The textures, colours and, above all, the tastes of a particular […]

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Burn-Out Vanishes When We Rediscover Purpose

Anita Mathias — Mon, 19 Dec 2016 22:25:52 +0000

When I blogged regularly, which I did for six years, I felt more alive, more alert, more attentive to my life, and what God was doing in it. In Frederick Buechner’s phrase, I listened to my life. I have taken a six month blogging break, and the peril of blogging breaks (or writing breaks: […]

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One Work Goal for 2105: Focus

Anita Mathias — Mon, 23 Feb 2015 10:54:12 +0000

I enjoy the One Word project. Instead of a resolution, one asks God for a prophetic word as a guide for the year. My word for 2014 was alignment. I have chosen Joy as the word to return to this year. When I find myself stressed, distressed, angry, worried or simply sad, I am learning […]

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In Which I Tell You about My Memoir-in-Progress and My Writing Process (Monday Blog Hop)

Anita Mathias — Mon, 12 May 2014 22:31:47 +0000

I have been tagged by Claire Musters to write about my work in progress, and my writing process. What I am working on I work on my blog, Dreaming Beneath the Spires, on the principle of the Minimum Effective Dose. What is alive grows, so I post just enough to keep my blog growing, month […]

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10 Lessons from Heartbreak Time and Death and Resurrection in Writing my Memoir (Part I)

Anita Mathias — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 11:50:18 +0000

So, around 1987, when I was reading English at Somerville College, Oxford, Salman Rushdie read from Midnight’s Children at the Oxford University Majlis, the Indian society. And I stay up all night reading Midnight’s Children, transfixed. At least 95% of the novels, plays, poetry I had read until then had been written by British, American […]

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In which I Encounter the Angel of Writing

Anita Mathias — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 19:32:00 +0000

Okay, I recently had one of the biggest sermon surprises in my decades of hanging around the beautiful, broken Church of Jesus Christ. I came to RiverCamp to hear Heidi Baker, as well as Mark Stibbe because I am interested in his message of the Father Heart of God. But what Mark talked about was—get this—writing!! […]

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“My Grandmothers and I”: A Memoir by Diana Holman-Hunt

Anita Mathias — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 22:43:00 +0000

Diana was the granddaughter of the Pre-Raphaelite painter, William Holman-Hunt, and the great-niece of Millais. A more interesting lineage than most, and one which provided her a more rarefied childhood than most. Rarefied, not necessarily happy. She was abandoned into the care of these grandmothers by a childish, selfish father, who does suddenly appear from governing the […]

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Cider with Rosie–An Exquisite Memoir

Anita Mathias — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 19:15:00 +0000

I am in the second or third draft of my own memoir, and have finally solved the problem of structure, I believe.I love the structure of Laurie Lee’s memoir.I have loved Cider with Rosie for well over a decade. Laurie Lee’s writing is so exquisite, so perfect, it almost makes me want to cry with pleasure. He […]

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