{"title":"Patrick Semple","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"speak-softly-and-laugh-quietly-book-patrick-semple-9781907215254","title":"Speak softly and laugh quietly.","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis is a collection of poetry by a poet who admits to having no idea where poetry comes from, but for whom poetry has been a refuge and a consolation throughout an eventful lifetime spent in a profession that forces confrontation with some of the biggest questions about humanity.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThese poems will speak softly to you, and make you laugh quietly, as they guide you on a personal and entertaining exploration of memory, history, belief, and the joy of poetry itself.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49592921325841,"sku":"GOR013336477","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1907215255.jpg?v=1750997006"},{"product_id":"transient-beings-book-patrick-semple-9781907215186","title":"Transient Beings","description":"This is the story of a rector as he struggles to understand his duty, his wife and his place in the world. It is a powerful study of addiction in all of its guises. It is a story from the heart as we follow the rector into a growing nightmare of rationalisation. It is a moving story of being an outsider on the inside, set in rural Ireland where one community lives inside the other and ancient tensions and prides are always just beneath the thin veneer of everyday life. Patrick Semple's writing has been described as having a depth of learning and an earnestness of purpose with a selfless immersion in the lives of the characters in the best traditions of John McGahern and Brian Moore.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49607628816657,"sku":"GOR005882229","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50406921666833,"sku":"GOR013936999","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1907215182.jpg?v=1751413351"},{"product_id":"rector-who-wouldn-t-pray-for-rain-book-patrick-semple-9781856355605","title":"The Rector Who Wouldn't Pray for Rain","description":"What happens when a devout believer who answered his vocation in the Church of Ireland, questions and then loses his faith in the supernatural or miraculous aspects of the life of Jesus Christ? Patrick Semple writes about the backdrop against which he grew up and became aware of the world and his questions about God and religion. This gripping memoir is his story: the story of a Church of Ireland clergyman who no longer believes the basic doctrines of Christianity and has found new insights in the teachings of modern astrophysics. \"The Rector Who Wouldn't Pray for Rain\" is also a picture of religious life in Ireland over the last sixty years, from an outsider's view of the Catholic triumphalist days of the 1940s, to the problems and benefits of the liberal secular society of today, told by a man who understands, and has lived through, both sides of the story.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49608560673041,"sku":"GOR002004828","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49634887663889,"sku":"GOR002004838","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1856355608.jpg?v=1751448714"},{"product_id":"believe-it-or-not-book-patrick-semple-9781856073547","title":"Believe it or Not","description":"Patrick Semple was born into the minority Protestant community in Wexford shortly after the second world war. 'These were the days of Catholic triumphalism when ecumenism in provincial Ireland was non-existent. Relations between individuals and families were good but as a parish level there was no contact . Canon Hazley would have had no contact with the Catholic clergy and if they met in public they would simply have exchanged polite greetings and passed on.' 'The Sunday morning service was much more than a meeting for the worship of Almighty God according to the Anglican tradition, it was the coming together of a tiny minority affirming their distinctiveness and their determination to survive . There was a strong sense of allegiance . to the Church of Ireland, which was more 'tribal' than theological.' This is a very straight-talking, honest and often humorous account of growing up in such a society and church. Religion was also a factor in getting his first job in Brittain's motor assemblers in Rathmines, but did not interfere with the lively and loud social life of his late teens. From there, the development of a sense of vocation, entery into the ministry and further edu","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49637414797585,"sku":"GOR001406821","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49639052116241,"sku":"GOR002949224","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53430073032977,"sku":"GOR012075487","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1856073548.jpg?v=1751455641"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/en-au\/collections\/author-books-by-patrick-semple.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}