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A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Francis Davis, Academic and social entrepreneur

Margate

Adbul Razak Gurnah is Professor of Literature at the University of Kent. After a lifetime of writing in 2021 whilst making tea, he heard he’d won the Nobel Prize for Literature. As a teenager Gurnah had had to flee Zanzibar for England.

One of his earlier essays is entitled, simply, ‘Margate’. It sketches a half-broken place, not much welcoming especially to immigrants like him, that sits next to seas into which pour lost glory and present pain. One imagines him in a lonely 1950’s boarding house trying to make sense of the ‘mother land’ of Empire from this vantage point.

Now I mention this because the other day I was in Margate myself hosted by Brian Horton, an energetic community activist and member of the town’s Muslim community, and his student intern Brandon Lewis (no relation to the politician). Both are Margate residents and passionate for the place. And I was struck by its current confident beat.

On the beach we found Anthony Gormley sculptures like those in Crosby. The Turner Gallery has opened a Margate branch and its exhibitions had seen over 300,000 visitors in recent months. New cafes and a brand-new boutique hotel all spoke of optimism as did a fresh railway timetable to the town’s magnificent station. Primary school performance is up too.

Contra the Nobel Laureate’s bleak description Margate’s culture today is start-ups and educational innovation, a new open water swimming pool in the making.
New life from old travails. And its people like Brian and Brandon creating that momentum. Margate, it seems, can change. Like we all must.

Lord, I pray for community change makers everywhere. Let their example inspire me too.

Amen

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