Conference on G.K. Chesterton the journalist

The theme of ‘Chesterton as a journalist’ will be treated in a one-day conference at the Erin Serracino Inglott Hall at University on May 15 from 6 to 8 p.m.

Fr Ian Boyd and Prof. Dermot Quinn, two eminent American Chesterton scholars from Seton Hall, New Jersey, will be analysing this prolific writer.

The Folio Society edition of G. K. Chesterton’s Poems presents a delightful caricature of a portly ‘GKC’ wearing a loose overcoat and fedora, spectacles and a drooping moustache , holding a lit cigar in his right hand and transfixing with his cane (in a fencer’s posture) loose leaves of controversy floating his way.

This caricature captures a significant aspect of the man himself, always zestful in duelling with controversy, and speaking up for the rights of the common man whose voice at the dawn of the 20th century, was muted or unheardand whose spirit was crushed by dreary repetitive drudgery of work in factories.

Most readers will recall their first childhood encounter with ‘GKC’ – his delightful The Donkey that “tattered outlaw of the earth “who, in spite of his ungainly appearance, had one glorious moment “one fierce hour and sweet”; or the rollicking Lepanto with its rousing blaring of trumpets, its thumping of drums and the flashing of banners celebrating that memorable triumph of Christendom against the formidable force of the Ottoman might, back in 1571, when the last knights of Europe were aroused from their comatose lethargy.

Chesterton was a prolific and versatile writer, and most of his writings, infused with sparks of good humour and scintillating wit, established him as a defender of the “romance of Orthodoxy” and the Christian Faith.

His novel The Man Who Was Thursday (1908) dazzles the reader with its flashes of cleverness almost on every page and centres on the baffling theme of suffering and misery in the world. It was written eight years before the horrors of the battle of the Somme and it is refreshing in its plea for valour, fair play and the ultimate triumph of decency.

The programme will include a tribute to John Micallef (‘Roamer’) who passed away earlier this year and who was instrumental in the organisation of this event. There will also be brief introductions by Peter Vassallo and Klaus Vella Bardon.