Theodore Dalrymple, Author at Catholic Herald

Theodore Dalrymple

October 11, 2018

Prison is not a hospital of the soul: though of course it is a good thing if it helps prisoners to bethink themselves. The cause of crime being the decision of people to commit it, a revision of prisoners’ ideas is much to be desired. As we approach Prisons Week, which begins on Monday, I

The ‘divine draftsman’ who leaves me unmoved

January 04, 2018

Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman and Designer by Carmen C Bambach, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 400pp, £50 Art criticism and art history are often either precious or, more frequently nowadays, jargon-ridden to the point of meaninglessness. Happily, Carmen Bambach’s book, handsomely produced and copiously illustrated, accompanying the largest exhibition ever held of the artist’s drawings, is neither.

Theodore Dalrymple: Are ISIS fighters really naïve?

November 02, 2017

One of the reasons given by Max Hill QC, the independent reviewer of anti-terrorist legislation, as to why not all British travellers returning from Syrian war-zones will be prosecuted – namely that many of them were merely naïve – is itself somewhat naïve. What we are being asked to believe is that young people –

Why jailbirds turn to God

August 31, 2017

For the first time, according to a recent report, Catholics outnumber Anglicans in British prisons. Whereas half of prisoners were Anglicans in 1993, only 17 per cent now are. There were 270 more Catholic prisoners in British prisons than Anglicans a couple of months ago, and nearly as many Muslims, the figures being 14,961, 14,691,

Why prisoners turn to God

August 31, 2017

Religion offers the fresh start many are looking for

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