Here, you will find details of my Career and Life, Books, and Media & Public Appearances. I also make available a substantial collection of my journalistic writings. At the bottom of this page, I have selected a quote from these writings in the hope that it will help you kick off your day on a contemplative, thought-provoking, but always life-affirming note. Since 2021, I have been a Contributing Editor to the European Conservative magazine, the online edition of which you can view at https://europeanconservative.com/
View Moral Matters: A Philosophy of Homecoming and all my works by hitting the ‘Books’ tab above
Latest Articles, Interviews & Videos
* My latest column in The European Conservative print edition is ‘Still Mourning Derrida after Twenty Years’ (Issue 32, Fall 2024).
* On October 4, 2024, I gave a Keynote talk (online) at a conference organised by the Research Institute for Politics and Government in Budapest on Scruton and Religion. The title of my piece was ‘Scrutinising the Sacred’.
*My latest column in The European Conservative print edition is ‘The Vineyard of Love’ (Issue 31, Summer 2024), pp.12-14. Also included in this issue are excerpts from my latest book Roger Scruton: The Philosopher on Dover Beach – An Intellectual Biography (Bloomsbury, 2024):
* This is an interview, published on May 9, 2024, with Professor Crawford Gribben for the New books Network. It is based on the new edition of my book Roger Scruton: The Philosopher on Dover Beach – An Intellectual Biography that was published on March 28 (see below). Listen here: https://newbooksnetwork.com/roger-scruton-the-philosopher-on-dover-beach
* The new paperback edition of my book Roger Scruton: The Philosopher on Dover Beach: An Intellectual Biography was released by Bloomsbury on March 28, 2024, to mark the fifteenth anniversary of its original publication. It includes a new Preface, Introduction and Afterword. See https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/roger-scruton-the-philosopher-on-dover-beach-9781399414197/
* My latest column in The European Conservative print edition is ‘The Bliss of Love’ (Issue 29, Winter 2024).See https://europeanconservative.com/ For those not subscribed, please get in touch and we’ll email you a copy of the piece.
* I shall give a lecture on ‘Beauty and the Human Person’ at a conference entitled Who are You? The Mystery of the Human Person Revealed, in St. Mary’s, Pope’s Quay in Cork, on Saturday, January 27, 2024. Here are the details:
* My latest column in The European Conservative print edition is ‘The Religion of Antichrist’ (Issue 28, Fall 2023).See https://europeanconservative.com/ For those not subscribed, please get in touch and we’ll email you a copy of the piece.
* Here are my latest online essays from The European Conservative, both of which appeared in October 2023:
* 2024 marks the 15th anniversary of the publication of my book Roger Scruton: The Philosopher on Dover Beach. To mark the occasion, Bloomsbury are reissuingthe book in paperback format.More updates soon.
* My latest column in The European Conservative print edition is ‘How to Read Hegel’ (Issue 27, Summer 2023, pp. 123-127).See https://europeanconservative.com/ For those not subscribed, please get in touch and we’ll email you a copy of the piece.
*I shall give two lectures at the Scruton Hub in Budapest, Hungary, on Friday, September 152023. See https://scruton.hu/
*My latest column in The European Conservative print edition is entitled ‘Art Cannot Substitute for Religion’ (Issue 26, Spring 2023, pp. 22-25). See https://europeanconservative.com/ For those not subscribed, please get in touch and we’ll email you a copy of the piece.
*I shall be giving a lecture on ‘How Europe Lost its Way: Sir Roger Scruton and the “False Europe”, as part of The Skellig Lecture Series 2023. For details of this and the full list of lectures see https://www.skellig-arp.org/
* My essay ‘Main Currents in Roger Scruton’s Philosophy’ has just appeared in a fine volume edited by Piotr Wroblewski: Tradition and Change: Scruton’s Philosophy and its Meaning for Contemporary Europe (Warszawa 2022).
*My two recent essays in print edition of The European Conservative magazine are: ‘The Tyranny of Egotism’ Issue 24, Fall 2022, p. 112; ‘The Sacredness of Silence’ Issue 25, Winter 2023, pp. 126-130. My latest online contribution can be read here: https://europeanconservative.com/articles/essay/light-above-politics/
* I contributed an essay entitled: ‘The coffin in which they imagine God’s corpse to lie: Roger Scruton and the Problem of Atheism’, to Local Culture (Vol. 4, No. 2, Fall 2022), the current edition of which is dedicated to Scruton. https://www.frontporchrepublic.com
*July 2022: I gave a lecture entitled ‘Hopkins, Scruton, and the Sacred’ at the 34th International Hopkins Festival, July 22-29. See https://www.gerardmanleyhopkins.org/
June 2022: I published the following essay on the cultural legacy of Antonio Gramsci in Public Discourse:
*April 2022: Douglas Murray’s review of Against the Tide in The New Criterion can be read Here
* February 7: I was in conversation with Fisher Derderian of The Roger Scruton Legacy Foundation on the subject of my latest book Against the Tide: The Best of Roger Scruton’s Columns, Commentaries and Criticism.
* Against the Tide: The Best of Roger Scruton’s Columns, Commentaries and Criticism was released on January 20, 2022.
* Read some of my recent articles for The European Conservative magazine below:
* A beautifully produced Czech translation of my book Conversations With Roger Scruton was published in September, 2021. It can be viewed and purchased here
* Below is a video interview I gave to Chris Missick’s VitiCulture Podcast on Roger Scruton, wine, conservation and belonging
* Below is a recent video interview that I gave on the newly published Finnish translation of Roger Scruton’s The Need for Nations
*I gave an online series of four lectures on The Conservative Hegel for the Roger Scruton Legacy Foundation during the month of March 2021. Each lecture can be viewed here.
* I led a reading of Roger Scruton’s Fools, Frauds and Firebrands: Thinkers of the New Left, for the Roger Scruton Legacy Foundation during the month of February 2021. Videos of the sessions can be viewed here.
*I gave a keynote address to an online conference: Tradition and Change: Scruton’s Philosophy, run by the University of Silesia in Katowice on Friday, January 22, 2021. My lecture ‘Main Currents of Scruton’s Philosophy’ can be viewed below:
*I published a piece entitled ‘Roger Scruton was no atheist’ in The Critic on the first anniversary of Sir Roger’s death (12.1.2021). You can read it here
*I gave an opening reflection at the Roger Scruton Legacy Foundation’s Remembering Roger Scruton online event to mark the first anniversary of Roger’s passing. The event was streamed live on Tuesday, January 12. View my comments and the opening session on Scruton and Eastern Europe here:
* My new book The Last Word: Roger Scruton’s Timely Tracts (Journalism 1971-2019) will appear with Bloomsbury in February 2022. More details to follow.
* I wrote a short reflection on Roger Scruton as “Man of Letters” for the Roger Scruton Legacy Foundation which you can read Here
* I have just published an essay entitled ‘Benedict XVI: Beauty as a Doorway to the Sacred’ in Dualta Roughneen (ed.), The Best of Benedict: An Irish Perspective (One on One Press, 2020). The book is available here:
* My essay ‘The Voice of History: Roger Scruton on the Meaning of Monarchy’, will appear in Carolina Armentros (ed.) The Making of Modern European Monarchy (Bloomsbury) in 2021.
* I led a discussion of my book Conversations with Roger Scruton online at the Scrutopia Book Club on Friday, October 23, 2020
On Roger Scruton and more, More Christ podcast, September 19, 2020
‘Society’s response to Covid’, Spirit Radio, September 17, 2020
The gentle breeze blows and you close your eyes. The sun is warm and the days are long. The world is still except for the sound of nature’s symphony. You have so much to do, so much that needs tending. There is the morning mess – don’t we all have to deal with that? Yes, but this is summer so the mess can wait. School’s out and the children are squeezing joy from of every second. Can’t you hear them giggling as they perfect their mischief making? Is this a sound of summer too? No doubt they will add to the mess, but time will take care of that. Time: a summer luxury that allows you to excel at doing nothing. But how can you do nothing? Aren’t we always doing something, even if it is only sitting here savouring the silence? Perhaps it means opting out of the fast lane for a while. Perhaps it simply means slowing down to catch a breath. Nature neither speeds up nor slows down. You hear a buzz by your ear, a bee at work in the shrubs. No deadlines, targets or goals, just a gentle rhythm that gets the job done. Bees don’t take vacations…
Lighting those candles each evening is much more than a seasonal luxury. It conveys a sense of belonging and togetherness, a sense that this home is a place of welcome and warmth. It reminds us that, as humans, our lives are infused with light from another sphere. ~Mark DooleySource: Moral Matters, 11.12.13
