The Beast of Bethulia Park

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Love books? Then get down to the Campbell Room of St John's Church, Standishgate, Wigan WN1 1XD, tonight where from 7pm I'll be speaking for 45 minutes about 'the 21st century Catholic novel'. Q&A and refreshments to follow. All are welcome. Dr Gavin Ashenden talks to the journalist Simon Caldwell about his debut novel, The Beast of Bethulia Park, in this 21st episode of Merely Catholic, the podcast series for The Catholic Herald.

Episode 21: The Beast of Bethulia Park with Simon Caldwell

The Foundation aims to support these children and will offer hope to as many of these children as possible and will bring together new treatments and rehabilitation facilities which are currently available in other countries but which are not available in the UK.

The archdiocese is, without any doubt, behaving responsibly in protecting the children in its schools from explicit descriptions of sexual, predominantly homosexual, activity. It has a legal obligation to do so. It must uphold the moral and theological precepts of the Catholic Church, which has always taught that sexual intercourse outside marriage between a man and a woman is sinful. It is what it exists to do under its status as a charity. It has behaved entirely as any independent observer would have expected. I'll be on Radio Maria England's Just Life programme ( https://lnkd.in/eqVqabkN) to talk about The Beast of Bethulia Park ( https://amzn.eu/d/axOkard) and the '21st century Catholic novel' for an hour from 10am on Friday June 16. The programme will also feature some music mentioned in the book - so expect a bit of John Lennon and Glen Campbell. The characters of the novel fumble their way in the dark, trying to discern the way forward, questioning themselves. Things are off kilter, but they aren’t quite sure why. An equally complex character is Father Baines. The young hospital chaplain struggles to master his desire for something more than friendship with Emerald, the nurse aiding his crusade for truth alongside Jenny. It is a humanising portrait of a genuinely devout individual trying, and largely succeeding, in living up to his religious principles surrounding sex and relationships, a tale that few English novels published this side of the sexual revolution have told well. We are excited about the Gala Dinner and our speakers. Please share and support our event and be a voice for these children.

The Beast of Bethulia Park by Simon Paul Caldwell | Goodreads

Canadian Catholic novelist Randy Boyagoda spoke of wanting to write his novels in the “here and now.” Caldwell manages that, placing his characters firmly in the here and now Britain of gamers, pornography, Tesco grocery stores and the NHS. Catholic journalist and author Simon Caldwell joins Anna Whitehead on air. Simon is the author of "The Beast of Bethulia Park", described as a "gripping psychological novel with Catholic themes". He explores the central themes and characters of the novel, and reflects in the second half of the episode on Catholic literature in general, and the role of Catholic novel in the 21st Century. The young journalist is repelled by the way that the nurses are flirting with the dashing young doctor, forgetful of the fact that they are in a courtroom, “the little coquettes, joking and laughing with him as he settled into their midst, batting their eyelashes and giggling playfully as he held court, those closest to him leaning into him with their breasts.” She is repelled but she is also feeling an uncomfortable attraction and is embarrassed when Klein glances up and catches her staring at him. St. John Paul II wrote that in modern life, “the conscience itself, darkened as it were by such widespread conditioning, is finding it increasingly difficult to distinguish between good and evil in what concerns the basic value of life.” In The Beast of Bethulia Park, journalist Simon Caldwell delivers such a novel. A fast-paced modern mystery-play replete with stumbling heroes and bloodthirsty villains, one could easily recommend it to a friend seeking an engrossing read for a long-haul flight or a convalescence.Her investigation into a series of deaths at the book’s eponymous hospital, which forms the basis of the plot, leads her into many quandaries. “The general public loved and trusted their doctors. They wanted to love them. News editors wanted to love them too,” she reflects as she probes medical records.

The Beast of Bethulia Park by Simon Caldwell | Waterstones The Beast of Bethulia Park by Simon Caldwell | Waterstones

Such is Dr. Klein’s crass disregard for the dignity of the human person that we are not surprised to discover that he treats his own wife and children with the same crassness with which he treats the women he abuses and the patients he kills. Although he seems to be a good father to his two daughters, he tells his wife, when she tells him that she is pregnant, that he expects her to have an abortion should this child be another girl. The book, due to published by Gracewing later this month, has been described as a “wonderful” psychological thriller underpinned by Catholic themes. It tells the story of a young and idealistic priest who is pitched into a dark world of sexual obsession, danger and death when he becomes embroiled in a campaign to unmask a murderous doctor. Green likes to present himself in this way.It is how he sees himself.In a recent interview with the Guardian, he brushed off objections to the sexually explicit language in his children’s books as ‘a convenient excuse for homophobia’. Since we need to be exact with the use of words and that it is now radically inclusive reflecting and…Need cheering up? Then get down to the Campbell Room of St John's Church, Standishgate, Wigan, on Friday June 9 where from 7pm I'll be speaking for 45 minutes about 'the 21st century Catholic novel' - and a bit about my own debut novel, The Beast of Bethulia Park ( https://amzn.eu/d/6CYOyvb). Q&A and refreshments to follow. All are welcome. Dr Klein is instantly discernible as a wrong ’un, with his snotty remarks to the hospital chaplain about the hospital “not being a religious playground”. Father Baines should have retorted that modern hospitals were invented by medieval monks.

The Beast of Bethulia Park Simon Caldwell on LinkedIn: The Beast of Bethulia Park

In a speech that Fleabag’s vicar could only dream of, Father Baines tells Emerald: “We’d end up like Edward and Mrs Simpson, you and I. You might think you’d be getting a good man but you’d lament losing the man you once admired and were attracted to… You’d lose respect for me and you’d end up despising me, and I might resent you for taking me away from my priestly ministry.” The book, due to published by Gracewing later this month, has been described as a “wonderful” psychological thriller underpinned by Catholic themes. It tells the story of a young and idealist priest who is pitched into a dark world of sexual obsession, danger and death when he becomes embroiled in a campaign to unmask a murderous doctor. Set in present-day England, the S. P. Caldwell’s novel is both a wild romp that includes fistfights, love interests, and the pursuit of a pair of murderous doctors, and a careful study of human agents navigating the present-day moral landscape.Do you remember, Tafida Raqeeb who in 2019 suffered from a sudden brain injury which left her fighting for her life. She was taken to Italy for further treatments. Further information can be found in www.tr-foundation.org. S.P. Caldwell’s “The Beast of Bethulia Park” offers a dissident perspective to the culture of death. This powerful novel about one particular surreptitious serial killer serves as a metaphor for our world, in which Big Brother has formed an unholy alliance with Dr. Death, putting in place the systemic extermination of the weak and the voiceless, the very young and the very old. Green and those like him are not serving the interests of free speech and expression, but are imperilling it. Most of us are very wary of censorship but if we are going to avoid it authors and publishers have a duty to behave responsibly, especially when it involves children. The Beast of Bethulia Park is a gripping psychological novel with Catholic themes but is also a wonderful thriller in its own right. Caldwell is an exciting new voice with a journalist's eye for crime detail and medical research. The priest belongs in the top literary gallery of priest protagonists who are all too human and find themselves up against clerical authority. A major new talent has arrived.” William Cash Emerald finds Fr. Baines in the confessional, and she asks him, “So which is worse? Adultery, drug abuse, or keeping quiet when you see others kill? You’d think being an accessory to murder is the easiest thing to avoid. But not in my job it ain’t. Does it make me a coward if I just carry on regardless? Is cowardice a sin? Just how bad am I?”