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A raw start to Lent

02 November 2006

"EVERYTHING white at our wedding turned to red." This recollection - matter-of-fact yet also naïvely poetic - encapsulates both the horror and the profound sadness of The Wedding Party (Radio 4, Thursday of last week) in which Nadia al-Alami and Ashraf Da'as al-Akhras told of the November day last year when two suicide bombers interrupted their celebrations.

One blew himself up and killed 24 guests at the Radisson Hotel in Amman. The bridegroom's father and both the bride's parents were among the dead. The other bomber - a woman - was unable to activate her device, and fled. The bombers were themselves a married couple.

When Nadia and Ashraf reminisce, they turn to the engagement video. The security forces are still studying the wedding video. One imagines something typically Middle Eastern - florid schmaltz with sophisticated production ambitions. But, as the couple show it to Caroline Hawley, the presenter, their commentary is one of loss: "This one is dead. . . This man is in hospital."

They are extraordinarily composed: possibly they have had to go through this rigmarole with many other news and documentary crews; possibly also their raw emotion is contained in the process of translation, though their English is exemplary.

But what is most striking, and  moving, is the lack of a sense of vengeance or anger. What is the point of anger, asks Ashraf, when there is no obvious target for that anger? The people who committed this atrocity were like you and me, at least on the outside. Nadia's position is more impressive still. The episode has made her more determined than ever that it is her duty to be a better person. "I will work to have a good life."

As an introduction to the themes of Lent, this could hardly be bettered. If you want to continue to explore such themes, you could do worse than the Radio Four Lent Bible Study resource, which is now fully online. This collection of Bible readings, questions for discussion, and prayers is intended to operate alongside broadcast services, starting with Sunday Worship (Radio 4, Sunday), which last week came from St Paul's Cathedral.

The series is entitled "Making Connections", taking as its core text St John' s Gospel. In this first week, we are invited to consider how God speaks in creation, in glory, in Jesus, and so on. Some of the online questions might remind one of O-level divinity - "How does John the Baptist describe Jesus?" - but it is easy to carp, and more difficult to come up with suitable material. Radio Four should be applauded for its joined-up thinking.

It is indeed easy to carp, as D. J. Taylor proved in Profile (Radio 4, Saturday of last week). His subject was Dan Brown, the "reclusive" author of The Da Vinci Code, who is currently defending an accusation of plagiarism. Frankly, I'm not surprised that he keeps his own company, when commentators like Mr Taylor - and his chief witness, Lisa Rogak, who has written an unauthorised biography of Mr Brown - display such sneering envy. You don't have to be a fan of Mr Brown's work to feel that such jibes as "a book for people who don't like books" is little more than lavatory-wall abuse.

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