An old review and a new review
Living with Honour is a courageous attempt to deliver something that has not been offered by a pagan author before - a realistic and thoroughly honest evaluation of the path she has made her own. Potential readers will be sent on a breathtaking journey into the oft misunderstood world(s) of paganism and what it actually means to take that world seriously: to live in it, celebrate it, dance with it, argue with it, and allow its charms as well infuriations to mould one's life. This book will help any reader not just to understand paganism at a deeper level, but also to make meaning out of life on this beautiful, yet messy and painful planet. The author leaves no stone un-turned and, while seeing all such stones as strangely sacred, does not shirk at offering necessary criticisms as well as hearty praise. Finally, as with all of Bobcat's books, this volume is written with poetry and warm humanity that makes it sumptuous and quite uncommon for the world of theoretical non-fiction. ~ Mark Townsend, priest, magician and author of The Wizard's Gift, The Magician's Tale and other titles
Living with Honour was published in 2008, and at the time of publishing, Mark Townsend's review, as quoted above, was very much a representation of where this book fitted into then-contemporary Pagan writing. Since then, a lot of other writers have been inspired to start talking about Paganism as a lived path. Emma Restall Orr's work has, no doubt, contributed to this flourishing of subsequent Pagan writing, showing that it made sense to replace dogma and how-to approaches with experiential, person and reflective writing that leaves the reader with plenty of room for whatever differences there are between the wiring and their own lived experiences.
