Peter D Toon's writing

Welcome to my website, where you can access a wide variety of my writing.

In 2025 I am publishing a short novel in paper and e-book versions:

Lent at St Anselm’s: A tale of music, mystery, and vegan cookery in a cathedral city. 

Just before Lent Eleanor Foster, a retired music teacher, moves into St Anselm’s, a medieval almshouse in the cathedral city of Wiltonbury. She soon makes friends who share her interest in food and music, and the Warden asks her to form a choir to sing in Chapel for Holy Week and Easter. But not everyone was welcoming.  Follow Eleanor and her friends through the challenges and trials of Lent to the joy of Easter morning. 

Previous readers said:

 “I must say how much I have enjoyed your novel. It really has gripped me and ended too soon! It would make such a good Lent book; most official Lent books feel dull.  The Unofficial Lent book could take off maybe?”

“a delightful story and told in a delightful style”

I am not uploading this here, as I am asking people who want to read it (as a paperback or as an e-book) to make a donation to The Friends of Canterbury Cathedral.  Please email petertoon@aol.com for more information or to order copies. 

I have however uploaded  the List of music  and the Recipes which are mentioned in the story here;  also Meatless Meals for Lent, a recipe book produced by Canterbury Deanery who does what it says, which may be of interest to readers of the story. 

Although this was intended to be just an amusing story using Lent as a framework, one reviewer suggested that it would make a good "Lent book", by which I think he meant a book read during Lent as a basis for spiritual reflection. In case anyone wishes to do this I have written a few questions for reflection  to help  you get started

Like Gaul the rest of the writing on here is divided into three parts, You can find a list of the material in each section by clicking on the links below (links are in bold and underlined throughout the site).

Academic writing: A list of my main academic publications in the fields of health care and medical philosophy, with links where possible to electronic copies, either downloadable from open access sites or to PDF’s I have uploaded to this site.

Theological writing: sermons written over a period of 16 years of Reader ministry, and also articles, published and unpublished on religion and spirituality.

Creative Writing: A miscellany. Since retirement I have enjoyed writing in various genres, including travelogues, short essays, and reflections on life in Avignon, where I spend much of the winter each year.

It is probably easier to read some of the longer pieces on an e-reader, but as there are  now many sites where  pdfs can easily  be converted to appropriate formats for these I have decided to upload everything as a pdf. Please contact me at petertoon@aol.com if you need help with this. 

Google Sites, which I used to build this website, reminds me of my first computer where every step had to be entered individually. Uploading files, creating links and enabling access to documents is a bit like that, so mistakes are easy and it is very likely that bits of it won't work. If that happens to you please let me know so I can correct it - again use petertoon@aol.com rather than my gmail address which is less closely monitored. 

I am still adding material to the site so it will change and develop over time.

From time to time I also post random thoughts on  ethics, theology, politics or anything else which strikes me in my blog, imaginatively named Peter D Toon's blog