For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy On My Little Pain

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I don’t really like historical novels or works of fiction about real people – however, I just really enjoyed the book I read about the Ladies of Llangollen and I really want to read this one. Incredibile come da Gennaio a oggi io sia riuscita a incappare in tutte letture noiose o poco interessanti. Many were the holy dialogues shared between the anchorite and the woman through their communion in the love of our Lord Jesus Christ during the days they spent together.

Stunningly original … Her skill is in creating a story that goes much deeper than its slender spine and spare prose might suggest. Victoria MacKenzie's For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy On My Little Pain is not historical fiction at its best. That they have their one moment of connection and recognition is done sublimely, and would that our current querrelsome factions had a similar sense of grace. Here you might be saying to yourself well, here's the medievalist being grouchy and nitpicky, and on a certain level you're not wrong.The book does provide a good insight into how female mystics were treated – reviled, rather than revered as their male counterparts were – and it also provides information about religion at the time. An interesting look at the lives and faith of two medieval women, neither of which I had heard of before.

Both women felt the burning need to record their experiences, which were in both cases visions of Christ – Revelations of Divine Love in the case of Julian, and an ongoing personal relationship with Jesus: being present at the crucifixion, receiving direct advice and counsel, physical affection, and, indeed, sexual intimacy in the case of Marjory Kempe.

Magnificent, bold and compelling' ROSIE ANDREWS, author of the Sunday Times-bestselling The Leviathan 'Compelling and beautiful. When I set out for Norwich I felt such hope that my visit to the anchoress would ease my spiritual pains. Again and again, she was told to know her place and not dare to speak on behalf of God or question the clergy. These two real life women are imagined with all the colour and noise that the era invokes, and along the way we learn a great deal about a woman’s lot back then. Interestingly, these women did meet in real life, and the latter part of the book deftly imagines their conversation.

Here it is not the picaresque and the picturesque but the almost magnetic necessity between the two souls which is key. So one is cloistered and the other the subject of gossip and innuendo; one is set apart from the world and the other rubs the world’s face in the Word.

It is an extraordinary feat of historical ventriloquism; the women’s inner lives, their religiosity, their sense of place in the world is miraculously conjured . A. Windeatt’s translation of The Book of Margery Kempe and Elizabeth Spearing’s translation of Revelations of Divine Love, it was published earlier this year. One woman, secure in the source of her visions, hid her visions and one, plagued with doubt, risked everything to share her messages from God. The characters of Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe, are given authentic voices and brought back to life.

I just wish that Margery’s and Julian’s God had not seen fit to inflict so much distress and suffering on these two women. Mackenzie beautifully handles Julian’s early difficulties in her isolation, and also the reasons why she chooses it. Of course, any reader who knows anything about the authors is waiting for the famous quotes to drop, and yet when they do it is done very seamlessly. It seems these coincided with the birth of her first child, though to say it was “just” post-partum psychosis is unfair and unwise.Book Review: For Thy Great Pain have Mercy on My Little Pain by Victoria MacKenzie (Bloomsbury, published 19/1/2023) Mother Julian with her pet cat (yes, this is explicitly allowed to an anchoress! Brings the historical fiction magic of allowing us to inhabit a time, place and perspective so very different from our own -- JO BROWNING WROE, author of A Terrible Kindness Stunningly original . Highly recommended and a book that speaks powerfully to those of us with faith, but clearly also works for non-believers. Volevo prolungare ogni momento della mia vita per riuscire a sentire il tempo come lo sente Dio: non l’istante che si dissolve all’improvviso, ma qualcosa di più vasto e inclusivo.