The most unlikely art critic in the history of TV

November 8, 2019 Emma Collins

SPCK’s Publishing Director, Philip Law, tells us about what it was like working with the late Sr Wendy Beckett. Not long before she died she agreed to compile a list of her all-time favourite paintings, the result is recently published Sister Wendy's 100 Best-loved Paintings. Sample pages from this exciting new art book are available to view in this blog post!

In his book Being Disciples, Rowan Williams describes what it feels like to be in the presence of a holy person:

‘A holy person makes you see things in yourself and around you that you hadn't seen before, that is to say, enlarges the world rather than shrinking it. . . . They allow you to see, not them, but the world around them.’ *

That is just how I felt after my fist meeting with Sister Wendy, back in 2011. I had written to her a few weeks before to ask whether she would like to work on an anthology of passages from the Bible illustrated by great works of art. The result was Sister Wendy’s Bible Treasury, which SPCK published in 2012.

At that point, of course, Sister Wendy was already famous for her many wonderful books on art history and appreciation. Her initial venture into print happened in the late 1980s. During a visit to the Carmelite monastery in Norfolk, where Sister Wendy lived as a hermit, Delia Smith (the TV chef) was so impressed by Sister Wendy’s unpublished reflections that she sent some of them to the Catholic Herald, who agreed to publish them as a series. This led to her appearance on a TV art show and then to her immensely popular BBC documentary series on the history of painting. She went on to present more documentaries, in both Britain and America – where she was described by The New York Times as 'the most unlikely and famous art critic in the history of television'. Sister Wendy also became the author of over thirty books, including the internationally bestselling The Story of Painting (Dorling Kindersley, 1997).

The last book that Sister Wendy published in her lifetime was The Art of Lent: A painting a day from Ash Wednesday to Easter (SPCK, 2017). Shortly after it appeared, she wrote to me to say:

‘You would be astounded (or perhaps not) by the number of letters I’ve had saying they found the Lent book helpful. It’s such a wonder to know this.’

At that point, in spring 2018, Sister Wendy’s health was already in decline, and for a while it seemed that it would be the last book to bear her name. But the good news for all Sister Wendy fans is that not long before she died (on 26 December 2018), she accepted my invitation to compile a list of her all-time favourite paintings. It is published in honour of Sister Wendy and as a loving tribute to the way she continues, through her writing, to enlarge our world, enabling us to see things in ourselves and around us that we hadn’t seen before.

Philip Law, SPCK
April 2019

* From Being Disciples (SPCK, 2016), Chapter 4.

Sister Wendy's 100 Best-loved Paintings

Shortly before she died in December 2018, and nearly thirty years on from her first book, Sister Wendy was working with SPCK on an anthology of her all-time favourite paintings. The result is this enthralling collection, which will delight her many fans all over the world while also inspiring a new generation of art lovers as they develop their understanding of the depths and subtleties of some of the world's greatest works of art. 

Buy now >>

View sample pages >>