Roll up, roll up, for Clowning Around, a soap opera set in the circus which Simon updated twice-weekly. The story has now ended, but all the episodes are online.   One-Minute Mystic – see the whole series of Simon's meditations, with one for each week of the year. Also see The Village, the story of Misty Longings, England's most beautiful village, posted episode by episode during 2008.   Church Times columns Sometimes when you are told to write 500 words before break time, it isn't because you have been naughty. It's just the editor wanting your weekly column in on time. For the past three years, I've done this for the Church Times. Opinion columns, which must always posture for attention, are only distantly related to the truth, of course. But I have enjoyed the attempt to build bridges between the two. Here are a few of those columns. They were always topical to something at the time. Hopefully that will be plain enough in the text. I offer them to you now, with Samuel Becket's words ringing encouragingly in my ears: "Try again! Fail again! Fail better!" Recent columns A birth announced Carols reviewed Crisis management Damaging people Explaining marriage to a Martian Hidden histories His Master's Voice School shame Towards the end What's a landscape worth Ancient columns For my more ancient columns in the Church Times, click here. © Simon Parke