Gretel le Maître Ponders Beauty, with Bede & other guests
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 67,000 downloads. Thank you!! 🙏
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 (who has kindly agreed to be the podcast’s Honorary Patron); Sir Richard Eyre; Actors Guy Henry and Enzo Cilenti; Art historian Philip Mould; Writer David Willem; Composer Matthew Coleridge; Vicar Angela Tilby; Aerial photographer Hedley Thorne; Author Bijan Omrani; Journalist and Historian Sir Simon Jenkins; Dorset garden hedgehog family, the Venerable Bede and other guests.
Future guests (all being well) are Tom Holland again, John Simpson, Kevin Stroud, Philippa Langley again, Clair Crawford, David Crowther, Philip Mould again, David Willem again, Aidan Ridyard and Katie Channon
Episodes
545 episodes
Bryon’s Pathless Woods; Mr Quiverful’s Poverty; Judith’s Arc; and Pepys’ Head
Judith; the Peculiar case of Canada; Sprinkling of Saints; et Encore Villette
Villette: Charlotte Brontë’s Enchanting Weaving of Words
Good evening As I read this chapter this evening in the quietness of my accommodation by the sea, I felt that dark, unvisited corners within my heart were being quietly crept into and opened up a crack. With her words sparingly used...
A Saxon Affrighted Ram at St Osmund’s; No Venture within Mrs Hardy’s; and Barchester Towers
A Long Chapter by Trollope and then Exeter’s Past, cut short by an inept Gretel
To be ept! Oh to be ept! The episode I produced today failed to save and so I’ve had to use the shorter version which ends at a dramatic rather canine point.This episode is only for you if you love Trollope, love long rambles a...
Hardy transports us to Egdon Heath; the Birth of Chartism; and Riverside Witterings
Simply Villette; and Eeyore’s wistfulness at being mistaken for Tigger
Bruton Bell; Housework Shmousework; Early Church Chronicles; and Barchester Towers
Strictly Literature: Tennyson, Trollope and C Brontë
#1 in the Top 100 Theatre All time chart #1 in the Top 100 Reflection All time chart
John Colet of St Paul’s; Pepys’ love of ‘Discourse’; and Lucy Snowe watches and sees all
Hello and a very good Tuesday evening. The Abbey bells are ringing as I write and I feel like my mojo has returned: what a strange thing ‘moods’ are. They descend upon us like heavy cloud, hang about as long as they like, and then v...
Sir Robert Peel in Parliament; the Founding of Peterborough; Pepys is Joyful; and Lucy Snowe has a Visitresse
Helloooo and a very happy Sunday to you. Thank you for joining me in my Dorset garden as we enjoy the swifts, the bells, and lovely literature: let them be as balm to your soul.
Belgian Buns, Saint Barnabas, John Clare and Charlotte Brontë’s Villette
Early Christianity in England; Tuesday Bells 🔔; Saints and Chronicles; et Villette
Bonus Episode: Living with Grief and Tragedy, a Chat with a Friend
This evening I chatted with a friend who lives with grief for the loss of children and a husband. Please be aware that this might be upsetting.
A Saturday Salad 🥗: Roman Exeter, Lord Brougham, Pepys, Saint Norbert, and (merci Oxford) the Bare Necessities 🐻
Short & Petite: We Close Charlotte Brontë’s chapter on Hope
Good afternoon! This is shorter than I had anticipated because I’ve got too many jobs to finish. I hope you enjoy this poignant and (I think) beautifully written chapter in Villette. Have such strong passions ever been described wit...
Teenagers, Trust and Trickiness; Samuel Pepys’ Diary; and Barchester Towers
Sunday Couplets: Augustine and Gregory; Slope and Archbishop; Graham and Lucy
Leaderboards#22 in the Top 100 Nature Monthly chart #39 in the Top 100 Nature All time chart #50 in the Top 100 Books Monthly chart #98 in the Top 100 Christianity Monthly chart#1 in the Top 100 Theatre All time chart
