I’ve been a guest on a number of writing podcasts including: Confessions of a Debut Novelist, A Pair of Bookends, Little Atoms, Mostly Books and The Writing Life. Julian, an anchoress, has not left Norwich, nor the cell to which she has been confined, for twenty- three years. It seems these coincided with the birth of her first child, though to say it was “just” post-partum psychosis is unfair and unwise.

She was a bold and passionate woman, and the accusations of heresy were no doubt motivated by a wish to see her humiliated for claiming spiritual authority. This is an extraordinary novel about two extraordinary women, the books they wrote and how those books survived. 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 .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.

Mackenzie re-imagines it, building on what is this account, including suggesting that Julian may have passed her own manuscript to the younger woman for safe-keeping. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. But while their writings about mysticism have always fascinated me, the women themselves have often felt remote.Moreover, I had little sense from this novel that MacKenzie has ever read much from or about the Middle Ages outside of the works of Julian and Margery. When she herself falls ill with a fever, she experiences 16 “shewings”, or visions, and is persuaded to retreat from the world. Holy Scripture states that the soul of a righteous person is the seat of God, and the anchorite trusted that the woman was such. Magnificent, bold and compelling' ROSIE ANDREWS, author of the Sunday Times-bestselling The Leviathan 'Compelling and beautiful.

Despite being a novella, the book dragged on and was effectively little more than a description of the hardships the two women had faced. I think this would also appeal to people with an interest in religion and Christianity in particular - a lot of the book is exploring how Julian and Margery express their faith and have a close relationship with Jesus/God. An interesting look at the lives and faith of two medieval women, neither of which I had heard of before. In contrast, Margery is perhaps less obviously sympathetic as she roams around, telling others of her visions and crying publicly and loudly about the sufferings of Christ. One from the huge amounts of loss she has faced in her life, and one from the huge amount of children she's been forced to have and the burden of womanhood that she struggles under the weight of.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. 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.