Ho letto le prime 50 pagine tutte d’un fiato, mi sono detta:”oh, finalmente sono incappata in un buon romanzo” e niente, non è stato così.” Entrambe, sebbene per motivi diversi, vissero una vita di sofferenza e dolore fino al momento dell'avvicinamento a Dio, nel quale, non solo troveranno la loro ragione d'essere, ma sfideranno tutti gli schemi sociali pur di vivere a pieno il loro credo. Sì, perché essere anacorete o profete in quel periodo storico significava rischiare l'accusa di eresia e la condanna al rogo. A startling read ... Magic' JO BROWNING WROE, author of the Sunday Times-bestselling A Terrible Kindness

Set in 1413, this novel sees a pivotal meeting of two female mystics from the Middle Ages. Margery Kempe has left her fourteen children and abusive husband behind to make her journey to meet Julian of Norwich, an anchoress withdrawn from the secular world. Margery has visions of Christ that not only get her into trouble with her husband, but also the men of the church, who denounce her visions as heresy. TWO books that constellate around the life and writings of Julian of Norwich. Both are written in the first person and offer an autobiographical account. Both have captured the voice of Julian in such an authentic way that their text could easily be transferred directly to the stage. Both demand performance. Intimately observed, lyrically written and meticulously researched' KIRSTY LOGAN, author of THINGS WE SAY IN THE DARK

Though her actual horizon is as small as can be, she comes to see all of life afresh with a potent clarity. There are, of course, moments of despair – she is certainly no plaster saint – but through a series of visions she glimpses an answer to the questions that torment her, and with it an acceptance. Margery has left her fourteen children and husband behind to make her journey. Her visions of Christ – which have long alienated her from her family and neighbours, and incurred her husband's abuse – have placed her in danger with the men of the Church, who have begun to hound her as a heretic. One of the few details we know of Julian’s life is that, in 1413, another remarkable woman who saw visions of God, Margery Kempe, came to visit her. A merchant’s daughter and mother of 14 from King’s Lynn, Kempe also has her place in English literature.

But hers is not the only story. Margery’s wandering quest orbits a very still centre – the life of the anchorite Julian of Norwich, confined to a tiny cell and effectively living out her days in her own tomb. “A nun is a bride of Christ and so has a nuptial mass, but becoming an anchorite is a death. I had to die to the world.” Julian, an anchoress, has not left Norwich, nor the cell to which she has been confined, for twenty-­three years. She has told no one of her own visions - and knows that time is running out for her to do so.

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Magnificent, bold and compelling' ROSIE ANDREWS, author of the Sunday Times-bestselling The Leviathan

The writings of Julian of Norwich have resonated widely in our modern world since T S Eliot borrowed that ­sustaining line from her Revelations of Divine Love in his Four Quartets: “All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.” Victoria will be in conversation with Sally-Anne, whose 2016 BBC documentary The Search for the Lost Manuscript, tells the story of how Julian’s manuscript was hidden for centuries. They will discuss women’s voices in historical fiction, the tradition of spiritual writing and much more. Magnificent, bold and compelling ... The writing is sometimes raw, at other times very beautiful - and from a place of deep knowledge and love of the historical period -- ROSIE ANDREWS, author of THE LEVIATHANThe Book of Margery Kempe, an account dictated to a scribe of her visions of Christ, her often tear-stained travels on a pilgrimage around Europe and beyond, and the charges of heresy she faced, is arguably the first autobiography written in ­English by man or woman. Lost for many centuries, the tale of its rediscovery – in 1934, in a cupboard in a country house by a guest ­looking for a ping-pong ball – has only added to its reputation. A novel that fearlessly investigates the medieval mind ... Honest, insightful, erudite and wise -- ANNIE GARTHWAITE, author CECILY

Julian, an anchoress, has not left Norwich, nor the cell to which she has been confined, for twenty-­three years. She has told no one of her own visions – and knows that time is running out for her to do so. Julian, an anchoress, has not left Norwich, nor the cell to which she has been confined, for twenty--three years. She has told no one of her own visions - and knows that time is running out for her to do so.

The author may even bring something of her own experience of that search for meaning in ­suffering to bear: Gilbert’s previous book, Miles to Go Before I Sleep (2021), was a thought-provoking account of her own two-and-a-half years of gruelling cancer treatment. Via a series of letters she sends to her counsellor, a Benedictine monk from Norwich Cathedral, Julian enters into a dialogue with the reader. The words Gilbert gives her segue effortlessly with the words we already know as hers, thanks to Eliot: “I wait patiently, with no urgency. I have been granted all the time there is. I do not try to make anything of what I see. I hold no expectation or assumption that I know anything at all.” Julian, an anchoress, has not left Norwich, nor the cell to which she has been confined, for twenty- three years. She has told no one of her own visions - and knows that time is running out for her to do so.