As Ronald Blythe writes in his Foreword, ‘This keenly argued book confronts today’s fashionable cynicism and despair, and thus has a message for the current moment when the experience of ageing, or the environment, or of those complex skills and emotions which go into the creation of poetry or stories or music, are all distorted or ignored in favour of what is called “reality”, but where the highest thought and achievement are concerned, is not at all real.’

Michael Mayne is one of the greatest Anglican priest-writers. His genius was to stir the reader to sit up and see, to notice the world as if for the first time. This Sunrise of Wonder is a collection of letters written over 20 years ago for his two grandchildren, Adam and Anna, that beautifully and memorably expresses Mayne’s vision of life. For him, to be human is to learn to be attentive, to recognise the mystery of people and of things. Learn how to see, he tells us, for to see is the beginning of wonder. He quotes from the poet Alastair Reid: ‘Amazement is the thing. Not love, but the astonishment of loving.’