Principal Books – Kathryn Spink

THROUGH THE CRACKS: MEMORIES OF AN IMPERFECT BIOGRAPHER
Kathryn Spink

(Hidden Way Publishing)
ISBN: 9781919244112

Kathryn Spink’s journey has taken her from a Himalayan hill station to Cold War European embassy life, from London’s Metropolitan Police to the luxury of the South of France and the slums of Kolkata, from the snows of Moscow to the Sahara sands, and from New York’s United Nations building to freedom marches in apartheid South Africa. In a series of snapshot memories, she provides a personal insight into some of the significant people she has encountered in the course of her writing life, some of them such as Mother Teresa well-known, others less so, but all viewed through the prism of Leonard Cohen’s insight: “There is a crack in everything. Through the crack the light gets in.”

In an age when disagreement can lead not to respectful acceptance of difference and imperfection but to “cancellation”, the reader is challenged to perceive and appreciate the light that can find a way through even the most devastating human brokenness. Through her experience of the human foibles of those she has met along the way, the author demonstrates that there may indeed be “a crack in everything” but that it is through those cracks that light not only enters but can at the same time be radiated.

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THE MIRACLE, THE MESSAGE, THE STORY
Jean Vanier and l’Arche

(Darton, Longman & Todd)
ISBN: 0-232-52594-3

“Well told and gets deep under the skin of l’Arche.”

Austen Ivereigh

In 1964 Jean Vanier, a Dartmouth-trained ex-naval officer, and son of a Governor General of Canada, bought a small house in a village north of Paris and invited three men with mental disabilities to share it with him. This was the beginning of l’Arche (The Ark), a community where people often rejected and despised by this world can share in a life of communion based on the recognition that we are all in our different ways ‘disabled’.This book traces the growth of the l’Arche movement and the life and thought of Jean Vanier: his childhood in a privileged Canadian family, his English education, his escape from war-torn France and his historic meeting with the priest who helped him to find his true vocation.

There are now over 125 l’Arche communities scattered across the continents. Their message – that the ostensibly poor and weak are potentially a source of life, hope and peace – has proved to be of exceptional relevance to the Church and the world

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DANCE WITH ME
Life together in l’Arche

“I want to thank Kathryn Spink because in a few pages, she has managed to reveal, with great attentiveness, Claire’s joy and the quality of her presence; and through carefully selected passages from Claire’s talks, her retreats or her notes she has shown how Claire’s heart and intelligence were at one.”

Jean Vanier

Claire de Miribel lived for 36 years in l’Arche, a community founded by Jean Vanier, where people with and without intellectual disabilities share their daily lives. This book outlines the compelling early years of a young woman’s search for God, and her transformation through her relationships with people with disabilities. The life and words of Claire reveal how her companions with disabilities invited her to embrace and share her own vulnerability. In this way she became herself a source of joy and unity, as they were for her.

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A UNIVERSAL HEART
The Life and Vision of Brother Roger of Taizé

(First published 1986, centenary edition 2015)
ISBNs: 1-57999-568-3 (US)
978-0-281-07357-3 (UK)

Shortlisted for the Winifred Mary Stanford Prize.

“Charmingly well written in a gentle and generous spirit.”

Archbishop Desmond Tutu

In August 2005 Brother Roger, the charismatic and much-loved founder of the Taizé community, was stabbed and died during evening prayer in the church of Reconciliation.

His death came almost 65 years after he crossed the border from his native Switzerland into war-ravaged France and settled in the tiny village of Taizé. Roger had asked himself why such conflict should exist between people in general, and particularly between Christians. He found himself called to establish a community in which reconciliation and peace would be made concrete day by day. In recent years tens of thousands of young people from all over the world have flocked to what was once a cluster of farm buildings on the Burgundy hillside. Thousands more attend the meetings which take place annually in different European cities. Some one hundred Protestant, Anglican and Catholic Brothers from 25 countries are continuing his commitment to a ‘parable of communion’.

The biography of the man who made the phenomenon of Taizé possible – republished with a new ‘Epilogue’ in November 2005.

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MOTHER TERESA
An Authorized Biography

(Harper Collins 1997)

Winner of a 1985 Christopher Award and a Catholic Press Association Journalism Award.

“Simply the best biography of Mother Teresa around. Thoroughly researched, sensitively written, and unfailingly inspiring, Kathryn Spink’s book should be, after Mother Teresa’s own writings, your first resource for understanding one of the greatest saints in Christian history.”

James Martin, SJ

This richly detailed insight into a remarkable figure, does not seek to avoid the criticisms sometimes levelled at the ‘saint of the gutters’, but places them in the wider context of an exceptionally fruitful and inspiring life.

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BLACK SASH
The Beginning of a Bridge in South Africa

(Methuen 1991)

“A balanced and well-written account.”

Archbishop Desmond Tutu

An extraordinary story of compassion, strength and determination to build bridges between the black and white communities. From 1955 onwards the Black Sash was a constant source of irritation to upholders of apartheid. Its membership grew from six women at a tea party to a league of 10,000 who held marches, convoys and all-night vigils. In their struggle against violence, harassment and injustice, members lost relatives, were themselves imprisoned and became the subjects of restriction orders, in some cases breaking these to talk to the author.

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A SENSE OF THE SACRED
A Biography of Bede Griffiths

(SPCK 1988)

“Balanced, comprehensive, accurate, clear and intelligent.”

Wayne Teasdale

A man of exceptional intellect who was yet able to recognize the limits of reason, Bede Griffiths, a friend and confidant of C.S. Lewis and one time Benedictine, found in India ‘the other half of himself’, a feminine, intuitive self which opened up a new sense of the sacred and of the harmony at the heart of all things. On the banks of the sacred river Cauvery he founded an ashram, a centre of prayer and meditation open to all seeking the universal and eternal truth at the heart of all religions. There he spoke with remarkable openness to the author, about his personal journey.

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THE CALL OF THE DESERT
A Biography of Little Sister Magdeleine of Jesus

(Darton, Longman & Todd 1994)

“A remarkable book about a remarkable woman.”

Jean Vanier

The first biography of an extraordinary woman called to a love, which recognized no boundaries. Madeleine Hutin founded in the Algerian Sahara, the first of many ‘fraternities’, in which groups of Sisters became ‘one with’ the nomads and the marginalized of the world. They worked in factories, travelled on lorries and lived at times in tents; they became gypsies amongst the gypsies, prisoners amongst the imprisoned. Little Sister Magdeleine journeyed across deserts, seas and mountains to reach out to the world’s most inaccessible people. From 1957 onwards she travelled secretly behind the Iron Curtain. When she died in 1989, she left a legacy of 1,400 Sisters from 64 nations. (See www.rc.net/org/littlesisters and www.jesuscaritas.info)

(Available in seven languages, including Russian)

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THE WISDOM OF MOTHER TERESA

(Lion 1998)

A collection of Mother Teresa’s reflections and sayings, arranged under thirty headings, to illustrate the spirituality underlying the achievements and the holiness that won the recognition of people of all nationalities and creeds.

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A CHAIN OF LOVE
Sharing in the work of Mother Teresa through prayer and suffering

“Some of the beautiful letters of the sick and suffering should be published. It will help many people to love Jesus more.”

Mother Teresa

This book is a response to Mother Teresa’s personal wish to make know the role of those who share in her work through prayer and suffering.

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If you have difficulty in obtaining any of the above titles please e-mail:

Kathryn_spink@btinternet.com

THROUGH THE CRACKS: MEMORIES OF AN IMPERFECT BIOGRAPHER Kathryn Spink

THE MIRACLE, THE MESSAGE, THE STORY Jean Vanier and l’Arche

DANCE WITH ME Life together in l’Arche

A UNIVERSAL HEART The Life and Vision of Brother Roger of Taizé

In August 2005 Brother Roger, the charismatic and much-loved founder of the Taizé community, was stabbed and died during evening prayer in the church of Reconciliation.

MOTHER TERESA An Authorized Biography

BLACK SASH The Beginning of a Bridge in South Africa

A SENSE OF THE SACRED A Biography of Bede Griffiths

THE CALL OF THE DESERT A Biography of Little Sister Magdeleine of Jesus

THE WISDOM OF MOTHER TERESA

A CHAIN OF LOVE Sharing in the work of Mother Teresa through prayer and suffering

THROUGH THE CRACKS: MEMORIES OF AN IMPERFECT BIOGRAPHER
Kathryn Spink

THE MIRACLE, THE MESSAGE, THE STORY
Jean Vanier and l’Arche

DANCE WITH ME
Life together in l’Arche

A UNIVERSAL HEART
The Life and Vision of Brother Roger of Taizé

MOTHER TERESA
An Authorized Biography

BLACK SASH
The Beginning of a Bridge in South Africa

A SENSE OF THE SACRED
A Biography of Bede Griffiths

THE CALL OF THE DESERT
A Biography of Little Sister Magdeleine of Jesus

A CHAIN OF LOVE
Sharing in the work of Mother Teresa through prayer and suffering