Linda Granville's DARK HOLY GROUND

DARK HOLY GROUND is a powerful memoir by Linda Granville that explores life on the margins in Middlesbrough, England. Blending personal story with spiritual insight, it reveals the resilience of those labeled as “outsiders”—the poor, the unemployed, and the excluded. Through symbolic moments like finding a piece of sea coal and a dandelion growing through concrete, the book uncovers beauty and hope in unexpected places. It is a call to compassion, community, and faith in the face of hardship, offering a deeply moving perspective on grace, injustice, and the sacredness hidden in life’s darkest corners.

Our Mantra was:

Don’t walk in front of me

I may not follow.

Don’t walk behind me

I may not lead.

Walk beside me

and be my friend.

An Introduction to

LINDA GRANVILLE

Born in 1946 in the north east of England to a working class family she had recurring dreams until she was 19, always accompanied by a loving figure she called “My Friend.”  Her father worked in the steel mills and fought with the Labor Unions in a time when women stayed at home and men worked hard to support their family. He died 6 weeks before age 65 which meant her mother only drew ½ a week’s widow’s pension. The only female sibling among three brothers, surviving in a patriarchal world, she grew up and through her strong Christian faith, created an “absolutely fulfilling life.”

From “Reflections” post below…

I believe subordination of any kind is intrinsically linked and bound up in the universal conditioning of how we perceive God to be, and that conditioning is man made and power based. The male language for God in most religions inevitably perpetuates women’s subordination across the world. God is love and love has no gender.

The world seems to be crucifying itself. But beyond crucifixion is the basic Christian belief of resurrection.  Resurrection is not getting down off the cross and going back to the spot that put us there in the first place, putting tiny plasters on our wounds. It’s about sticking with the cross, standing where the seeming opposites intersect, learning from each, and then going beyond it into a new and better all inclusive way of be-ing.

As a woman of faith, I ask myself, could the same truly loving God that liberated me as a woman be the same God that perpetuates this and oppressive subordination of others across the world?

DOWNLOAD A PDF OF “Reflections of my visit to the Palestinian Territories”

I deeply resonate with a quote from Mary Daly’s book, ‘Beyond God the Father’

Why indeed must God be a noun?

Why not a verb, the most active and dynamic of all?

The human symbols for God may be intended to convey personality, but we fail to perceive that God is Be-ing.

That which it is over against is Non Be-ing.

Women (and I would argue any other subordinate group) who have travelled through their experience of Non Be-ing in the process of liberation, are able to perceive this because…

Our liberation consists of refusing to be ‘the other’ And asserts instead, “I am”, without making another the ‘other’.

A Review by Annelou Perrenoud

‘DARK HOLY GROUND’ by Linda Granville is packed with disturbing, compelling, but equally amazing and encouraging information It is first and foremost Linda’s life story, written from the heart with great spontaneity and authenticity. For that reason it probably belongs in a collection of other first-person accounts of the 20th century. In the US, the Library of Congress collects material of this nature, but there are surely similar story collection projects in the UK.

Linda’s book is a lot more than a personal story, however. It is a scathing critique of failed public policies and short-sighted, demeaning government tactics. It glaringly illuminates modern society’s misconception of poverty and its total disregard for the people trapped in it. Because of the breadth and depth to which Linda explores the culture of poverty, ‘DARK HOLY GROUND’ becomes a document of significant historic value — the kind of record future historians, researchers, and hopefully, future politicians might appreciate.

Additionally, Linda’s book offers innumerable resources and tactics for social change. As a passionate activist herself, Linda has explored every possible avenue to get people to link up and cooperate in order to bring about change. Her list of benevolent grassroots organizations is extensive. And if Linda could not find the help she needed, she often started her own group, or talked some other organization or institution to step in.

‘DARK HOLY GROUND’ is not a comfortable book to read, as it ruthlessly exposes the inequities between the privileged and the overlooked. It is a message our world sorely needs to hear.