I went to church today.

Nothing special in that; some three million of my fellow Britons did too.

In my case, though, it was a bit different. I don’t believe in deities. Not those of the Greeks of antiquity (not even when the Romans took them and changed their names), not those of the Vikings, though they live on as part of the days of our week, nor the Judeo-Christian, Muslim, or Hindu versions, regardless of their popularity in certain environments.

The sun would still have risen had Montezuma taken a day off from removing people’s hearts, rain will fall or not fall irrespective of whether villagers dance till their feet are nothing but worn-down stumps, and praying, however earnestly, for someone’s salvation the second you hear that he’s been in an accident won’t magically make him undead.

Yet at 10:30 this morning (plus an additional ten minutes of characteristic unpunctuality), I was present at Living Rock Church of my own volition, preparing to experience a morning’s worship.

Quite the paradox. Vegetarians don’t go to the butcher’s, feminists don’t visit strip clubs … and atheists don’t frequent churches.

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No, nothing to do with the Spice Girls or Emmeline Pankhurst.

I’ve observed this a lot over the last year, but really felt moved to write about it after a couple of experiences today. It’s about how the addition of something to one’s person radically alters the perceptions and bahaviour of others.

Consider the baseball cap. William Hague tried to change his image by wearing one, and it just served to encourage people to ridicule him. Not his style at all. Once he took it off and shaved his head, the reverse Samson effect ™ occurred, a witty and razor-sharp Hague sonning Blair from pillar to post in their weekly debates.

In the name of image-creation, Prime Minister Harold Wilson rarely allowed himself to be captured by photographers without having a pipe in his hand. President Harry S Truman did something similar, inventing a middle initial.

So what appendage have I been sporting that seems to radically alter people’s attitudes towards me?

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By Christopher Hitchens

I’ve read articles by “Hitch” in newspapers a few times over the years, but was otherwise unacquainted with him.

I was picking up some books for Radio a few months back and found myself gravitating toward the “me” side of the store, all serious books on history and what not. In the corner stood out this book with the ‘can’t miss’ title.

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Perhaps the most nonsensical post title ever. I am, however, intent on wittering about a chocolate that is apparently sporty.

No, it makes little sense to me either, but love rarely does. And I am in love. Deeply so, with a new beauty in my life.

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Yesterday was the 21st of June. It marked our 17th anniversary. (Radio likes to ignore the ‘anni’ part of the word, celebrating every month instead.)

Of course, I had no idea, but she sent me a sweet text in the morning to say “happy 12 + 5 … 17th anniversary!”

In our relationship, though, that date will hold a lot more significance, since it marked a series of steps towards our future.

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By John Baldock

At first glance, this is a perfect book for me, reporting on the blurb that a close look at the Bible shows that women used to be regarded as men’s equals, rather than their subjects. This certainly goes against anything I’ve ever detected in there, and I was keen to rectify my apparent ignorance.

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By Grania Forbes

These books are always full of surprises, not least those of a visual nature.

The current Queen is in her 80s and has always been two generations in front of me, so it was a great surprise to me to see photos of her that showed her to be a stunning young lady.

This effect, quite obviously, is magnified when the subject is her mother, who seems to have been one of the most captivatingly sweet children I think I’ve ever seen.

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By Alastair Massie

I’ve a thing for redcoats lately, based on the Peninsular War of the early nineteenth century. Well, here’s a book on them again, this time in another war and, strikingly, alongside the French!

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By Michael Allingham

This was an unlikely thing for me to read. I’m quite a rational person, and have done tonnes of studies involving mathematics and probabilities, so there was nothing in here that was new to me.

Not a problem: I casually read a book on introductory economics last year, four years after attaining my MSc in the subject, and I bought a book on elementary Italian recently, bene che io abbia già cominciato a apprendere italiano qualche anno fa.

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By Frederick Forsyth

I loved the two books by FF that I’d already read. They were the two that I’d already heard about, the incomporable “The Day Of The Jackal” and well-known “The ODESSA File“.

When I had the opportunity to bag myself another one for a paltry pound, I couldn’t resist.

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