Gretel le Maître Ponders Beauty, with Bede & other guests

Listener mail is warmly welcomed 🙋‍♀️

Support the show

Gretel le Maître likes to look for the beauty and curiosities in life, one day at a time.  She shares with you snippets from books about history, art and literature and regularly takes you on adventures to new locations, to explore churches, cathedrals and architecture.  We’ve reached over 80,000 downloads.  

Don’t try to listen in order, unless you’re very committed.  Dip in and out, choosing an episode based on the title information.  Whether you are interested in history, literature, poetry or one-to-one chatting, I try to give you something that will interest you.  This is a podcast for the curious, the kind and - possibly - the suffering or lonely.  

Historian Tom Holland is the Honorary Patron of this podcast.  Thank you Tom🙏 

Gretel invites you to accompany her as she navigates the world a day at a time;  the podcast is unscripted, it’s ad-free.

Gretel loves the world and history, architecture, literature and people. And so is determined to walk this path with light footsteps and with humour and warmth.  Let’s gather up the beautiful things and ponder them in our hearts.

Top 10 in Global Rankings according to Listen Notes.  I would be so grateful if you would spare the time to give me a kind review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 😬☺️🥴

Previous guests include  historian Tom Holland; Sir Richard Eyre; Actors Guy Henry and Enzo Cilenti; Art historian Philip Mould; Writer David Willem; Author Nicola Cornick; Composer Matthew Coleridge; Vicar Angela T...

Listener mail is warmly welcomed 🙋‍♀️

A day trying to help my teenage daughter. Such is life of a Mummy. 😔

Support the show

Gretel le Maître likes to look for the beauty and curiosities in life, one day at a time.  She shares with you snippets from books about history, art and literature and regularly takes you on adventures to new locations, to explore churches, cathedrals and architecture.  We’ve reached over 80,000 downloads.  

Don’t try to listen in order, unless you’re very committed.  Dip in and out, choosing an episode based on the title information.  Whether you are interested in history, literature, poetry or one-to-one chatting, I try to give you something that will interest you.  This is a podcast for the curious, the kind and - possibly - the suffering or lonely.  

Historian Tom Holland is the Honorary Patron of this podcast.  Thank you Tom🙏 

Gretel invites you to accompany her as she navigates the world a day at a time;  the podcast is unscripted, it’s ad-free.

Gretel loves the world and history, architecture, literature and people. And so is determined to walk this path with light footsteps and with humour and warmth.  Let’s gather up the beautiful things and ponder them in our hearts.

Top 10 in Global Rankings according to Listen Notes.  I would be so grateful if you would spare the time to give me a kind review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 😬☺️🥴

Previous guests include  historian Tom Holland; Sir Richard Eyre; Actors Guy Henry and Enzo Cilenti; Art historian Philip Mould; Writer David Willem; Author Nicola Cornick; Composer Matthew Coleridge; Vicar Angela T...

Listener mail is warmly welcomed 🙋‍♀️

Oh dear, this episode has taken me a long time to sort out.  The magic of the holy source of the river cast its spells over the rest of the episode.  I think it is just about publishable, however it ends with an unfulfilled promise.  I’ll leave that for you to discover.

Love and best wishes and, as ever, for your forbearance.  🙋‍♀️🥴😊

Support the show

Gretel le Maître likes to look for the beauty and curiosities in life, one day at a time.  She shares with you snippets from books about history, art and literature and regularly takes you on adventures to new locations, to explore churches, cathedrals and architecture.  We’ve reached over 80,000 downloads.  

Don’t try to listen in order, unless you’re very committed.  Dip in and out, choosing an episode based on the title information.  Whether you are interested in history, literature, poetry or one-to-one chatting, I try to give you something that will interest you.  This is a podcast for the curious, the kind and - possibly - the suffering or lonely.  

Historian Tom Holland is the Honorary Patron of this podcast.  Thank you Tom🙏 

Gretel invites you to accompany her as she navigates the world a day at a time;  the podcast is unscripted, it’s ad-free.

Gretel loves the world and history, architecture, literature and people. And so is determined to walk this path with light footsteps and with humour and warmth.  Let’s gather up the beautiful things and ponder them in our hearts.

Top 10 in Global Rankings according to Listen Notes.  I would be so grateful if you would spare the time to give me a kind review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 😬☺️🥴

Previous guests include  historian Tom Holland; Sir Richard Eyre; Actors Guy Henry and Enzo Cilenti; Art historian Philip Mould; Writer David Willem; Author Nicola Cornick; Composer Matthew Coleridge; Vicar Angela T...

Listener mail is warmly welcomed 🙋‍♀️

Support the show

Gretel le Maître likes to look for the beauty and curiosities in life, one day at a time.  She shares with you snippets from books about history, art and literature and regularly takes you on adventures to new locations, to explore churches, cathedrals and architecture.  We’ve reached over 80,000 downloads.  

Don’t try to listen in order, unless you’re very committed.  Dip in and out, choosing an episode based on the title information.  Whether you are interested in history, literature, poetry or one-to-one chatting, I try to give you something that will interest you.  This is a podcast for the curious, the kind and - possibly - the suffering or lonely.  

Historian Tom Holland is the Honorary Patron of this podcast.  Thank you Tom🙏 

Gretel invites you to accompany her as she navigates the world a day at a time;  the podcast is unscripted, it’s ad-free.

Gretel loves the world and history, architecture, literature and people. And so is determined to walk this path with light footsteps and with humour and warmth.  Let’s gather up the beautiful things and ponder them in our hearts.

Top 10 in Global Rankings according to Listen Notes.  I would be so grateful if you would spare the time to give me a kind review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 😬☺️🥴

Previous guests include  historian Tom Holland; Sir Richard Eyre; Actors Guy Henry and Enzo Cilenti; Art historian Philip Mould; Writer David Willem; Author Nicola Cornick; Composer Matthew Coleridge; Vicar Angela T...

Listener mail is warmly welcomed 🙋‍♀️

Dear friends, supporters and newcomers.  I feel tender-hearted towards the world tonight as I read poetry by John Clare which, so often, takes us into the woodland, where we see leaves and trees up close, though we are still in our beds.  Clare’s words are clear, tender and almost merry and I often feel myself trip-tripping along to the beat of some unknown yet deeply familiar song.  My childhood days return and the skies feel huge and blue.  All is well and bright and has a rosy hue.  

This chapter by Charles Dickens contrasts with the preceding chapters, where a person’s word and intentions are trusted because their life hitherto ‘shall bear witness’ for them.  This is a currency that Hugh, Mr Chester and Mr Tappertit lack.  

In the next episode we will conclude the book of Wolsey, and continue with the diaries of Pepys, and peek into the gentle drama unfolding in Barchester.

Thank you for your support.  A very goodnight.  

Support the show

Gretel le Maître likes to look for the beauty and curiosities in life, one day at a time.  She shares with you snippets from books about history, art and literature and regularly takes you on adventures to new locations, to explore churches, cathedrals and architecture.  We’ve reached over 80,000 downloads.  

Don’t try to listen in order, unless you’re very committed.  Dip in and out, choosing an episode based on the title information.  Whether you are interested in history, literature, poetry or one-to-one chatting, I try to give you something that will interest you.  This is a podcast for the curious, the kind and - possibly - the suffering or lonely.  

Historian Tom Holland is the Honorary Patron of this podcast.  Thank you Tom🙏 

Gretel invites you to accompany her as she navigates the world a day at a time;  the podcast is unscripted, it’s ad-free.

Gretel loves the world and history, architecture, literature and people. And so is determined to walk this path with light footsteps and with humour and warmth.  Let’s gather up the beautiful things and ponder them in our hearts.

Top 10 in Global Rankings according to Listen Notes.  I would be so grateful if you would spare the time to give me a kind review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 😬☺️🥴

Previous guests include  historian Tom Holland; Sir Richard Eyre; Actors Guy Henry and Enzo Cilenti; Art historian Philip Mould; Writer David Willem; Author Nicola Cornick; Composer Matthew Coleridge; Vicar Angela T...

Listener mail is warmly welcomed 🙋‍♀️

*Photograph taken from Swan Auction Galleries

Welcome to today’s spirited and passionate episode.  Walk with me in the old land of the Danes where mounds of land can appear from the swamps, where monsters in the mere are dreaded, and where the joys of life come from the telling and retelling of marvellous feats of honour and glory.  Where glimpses of the past - from an understanding of how a loved King might be buried, to how it was seen as wrong to kill one’s own kinsfolk - are there for us to behold and absorb into our understanding of the past.  We enter that part of Dicken’s fine novel where the cards of the characters with black souls are laid out before us: where all is to play for; where the stage is set for the good-hearted creatures to find safety in a world where there are those conspiring against them.  And finally we turn to hope, courage and joy as Maya Angelou takes centre stage and reminds us that freedoms we see about us today were hard and wretchedly won.  If we are not free, we are not fully alive.  

Support the show

Gretel le Maître likes to look for the beauty and curiosities in life, one day at a time.  She shares with you snippets from books about history, art and literature and regularly takes you on adventures to new locations, to explore churches, cathedrals and architecture.  We’ve reached over 80,000 downloads.  

Don’t try to listen in order, unless you’re very committed.  Dip in and out, choosing an episode based on the title information.  Whether you are interested in history, literature, poetry or one-to-one chatting, I try to give you something that will interest you.  This is a podcast for the curious, the kind and - possibly - the suffering or lonely.  

Historian Tom Holland is the Honorary Patron of this podcast.  Thank you Tom🙏 

Gretel invites you to accompany her as she navigates the world a day at a time;  the podcast is unscripted, it’s ad-free.

Gretel loves the world and history, architecture, literature and people. And so is determined to walk this path with light footsteps and with humour and warmth.  Let’s gather up the beautiful things and ponder them in our hearts.

Top 10 in Global Rankings according to Listen Notes.  I would be so grateful if you would spare the time to give me a kind review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 😬☺️🥴

Previous guests include  historian Tom Holland; Sir Richard Eyre; Actors Guy Henry and Enzo Cilenti; Art historian Philip Mould; Writer David Willem; Author Nicola Cornick; Composer Matthew Coleridge; Vicar Angela T...

Listener mail is warmly welcomed 🙋‍♀️

Hello and thank you so much for joining me.  I haven’t had a chance to listen to it through so I hope it’s ok and I haven’t accidentally recorded anything I shouldn’t have or left any long gaps.  Gretel sneezes 🤧 or suchlike 🥴.  Bless you all for joining me on my quest to find the beautiful and interesting things in life to read, notice and feast our senses on.  I read a poem today by John Clare, where he is bemused that a postman can walk with his eyes fixed ahead of him, when there is so much to enjoy.  Even the tiniest twig.  Ode to the tiny twig.  Goodnight and I pray you enjoy the coming February days.  The world may not be steady but we can be steady within our own selves, and find comfort and succour from the steadiness of the natural world.  Bad people cannot stop time or tide and their season will come to an end.  Night night.

🫖 🌳 🌞 

Support the show

Gretel le Maître likes to look for the beauty and curiosities in life, one day at a time.  She shares with you snippets from books about history, art and literature and regularly takes you on adventures to new locations, to explore churches, cathedrals and architecture.  We’ve reached over 80,000 downloads.  

Don’t try to listen in order, unless you’re very committed.  Dip in and out, choosing an episode based on the title information.  Whether you are interested in history, literature, poetry or one-to-one chatting, I try to give you something that will interest you.  This is a podcast for the curious, the kind and - possibly - the suffering or lonely.  

Historian Tom Holland is the Honorary Patron of this podcast.  Thank you Tom🙏 

Gretel invites you to accompany her as she navigates the world a day at a time;  the podcast is unscripted, it’s ad-free.

Gretel loves the world and history, architecture, literature and people. And so is determined to walk this path with light footsteps and with humour and warmth.  Let’s gather up the beautiful things and ponder them in our hearts.

Top 10 in Global Rankings according to Listen Notes.  I would be so grateful if you would spare the time to give me a kind review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 😬☺️🥴

Previous guests include  historian Tom Holland; Sir Richard Eyre; Actors Guy Henry and Enzo Cilenti; Art historian Philip Mould; Writer David Willem; Author Nicola Cornick; Composer Matthew Coleridge; Vicar Angela T...

Listener mail is warmly welcomed 🙋‍♀️

Hello and a happy Monday 2nd February .

There is no Barnaby Rudge this evening as it’s a Monday, but instead this is an episode full of a variety of readings and the usual Gretel chatter that I hope you might like, or at least put up with.  

See you tomorrow for our progress with Dickens.  Thank you so much for joining me! 😄

Support the show

Gretel le Maître likes to look for the beauty and curiosities in life, one day at a time.  She shares with you snippets from books about history, art and literature and regularly takes you on adventures to new locations, to explore churches, cathedrals and architecture.  We’ve reached over 80,000 downloads.  

Don’t try to listen in order, unless you’re very committed.  Dip in and out, choosing an episode based on the title information.  Whether you are interested in history, literature, poetry or one-to-one chatting, I try to give you something that will interest you.  This is a podcast for the curious, the kind and - possibly - the suffering or lonely.  

Historian Tom Holland is the Honorary Patron of this podcast.  Thank you Tom🙏 

Gretel invites you to accompany her as she navigates the world a day at a time;  the podcast is unscripted, it’s ad-free.

Gretel loves the world and history, architecture, literature and people. And so is determined to walk this path with light footsteps and with humour and warmth.  Let’s gather up the beautiful things and ponder them in our hearts.

Top 10 in Global Rankings according to Listen Notes.  I would be so grateful if you would spare the time to give me a kind review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 😬☺️🥴

Previous guests include  historian Tom Holland; Sir Richard Eyre; Actors Guy Henry and Enzo Cilenti; Art historian Philip Mould; Writer David Willem; Author Nicola Cornick; Composer Matthew Coleridge; Vicar Angela T...

Listener mail is warmly welcomed 🙋‍♀️

Hello and thank you so much for joining me this rainy Sunday. It’s February 1st, so we say farewell to January and celebrate the life of the Irish Saint, Brigid.  This episode is dedicated to every soul living in Minneapolis.  xxx

We continue with Barnaby Rudge and have still barely hinted at the key events that are to take place in this marvellous book by Charles Dickens.  I’m thinking that we may want to read Tess of the D’Urbevilles this year.  I’m also tugged by the novels of the Brontë sisters.  What think you?  

Support the show

Gretel le Maître likes to look for the beauty and curiosities in life, one day at a time.  She shares with you snippets from books about history, art and literature and regularly takes you on adventures to new locations, to explore churches, cathedrals and architecture.  We’ve reached over 80,000 downloads.  

Don’t try to listen in order, unless you’re very committed.  Dip in and out, choosing an episode based on the title information.  Whether you are interested in history, literature, poetry or one-to-one chatting, I try to give you something that will interest you.  This is a podcast for the curious, the kind and - possibly - the suffering or lonely.  

Historian Tom Holland is the Honorary Patron of this podcast.  Thank you Tom🙏 

Gretel invites you to accompany her as she navigates the world a day at a time;  the podcast is unscripted, it’s ad-free.

Gretel loves the world and history, architecture, literature and people. And so is determined to walk this path with light footsteps and with humour and warmth.  Let’s gather up the beautiful things and ponder them in our hearts.

Top 10 in Global Rankings according to Listen Notes.  I would be so grateful if you would spare the time to give me a kind review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 😬☺️🥴

Previous guests include  historian Tom Holland; Sir Richard Eyre; Actors Guy Henry and Enzo Cilenti; Art historian Philip Mould; Writer David Willem; Author Nicola Cornick; Composer Matthew Coleridge; Vicar Angela T...

Listener mail is warmly welcomed 🙋‍♀️

Support the show

Gretel le Maître likes to look for the beauty and curiosities in life, one day at a time.  She shares with you snippets from books about history, art and literature and regularly takes you on adventures to new locations, to explore churches, cathedrals and architecture.  We’ve reached over 80,000 downloads.  

Don’t try to listen in order, unless you’re very committed.  Dip in and out, choosing an episode based on the title information.  Whether you are interested in history, literature, poetry or one-to-one chatting, I try to give you something that will interest you.  This is a podcast for the curious, the kind and - possibly - the suffering or lonely.  

Historian Tom Holland is the Honorary Patron of this podcast.  Thank you Tom🙏 

Gretel invites you to accompany her as she navigates the world a day at a time;  the podcast is unscripted, it’s ad-free.

Gretel loves the world and history, architecture, literature and people. And so is determined to walk this path with light footsteps and with humour and warmth.  Let’s gather up the beautiful things and ponder them in our hearts.

Top 10 in Global Rankings according to Listen Notes.  I would be so grateful if you would spare the time to give me a kind review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 😬☺️🥴

Previous guests include  historian Tom Holland; Sir Richard Eyre; Actors Guy Henry and Enzo Cilenti; Art historian Philip Mould; Writer David Willem; Author Nicola Cornick; Composer Matthew Coleridge; Vicar Angela T...