For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy On My Little Pain

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Seeking the anchorite’s counsel, she disclosed these experiences to ascertain if there was any deceit in them, given the anchorite’s expertise in such matters. By two remarkable women, one saintly, one very human indeed, whose voices somehow speak to us across the empty centuries of history, remarkably, frustratingly and inspirationally. While reading it I was totally immersed in the lives of Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe - both medieval mystics.

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 … This novel is brilliantly done. 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 .In "Abbi pietà del mio piccolo dolore", Victoria MacKenzie dà spazio a entrambi gli aspetti -quello cristiano e quello umano- di due donne che vissero nell'Inghilterra quattrocentesca: Margery Kempe e Julian di Norwich. Join us for an Edinburgh launch of this captivating historical novel - discover a new talent, rediscover two mystics hidden in history. There was a respect and sensitivity to the historical facts but a clever, lyrical exploration of the two. It is a work of fiction, but takes its inspirations from The Book of Margery Kempe (the first autobiography written in English by a man or woman) and Julian's Revelations of Divine Love (the earliest surviving book in English written by a woman).

It is in this fifteenth-century Norfolk, ruled by a universal, all-powerful Church, yet where few of the folk really believe in it all, that Marjory Kempe and the woman who later became known as Julian of Norwich were born. I teach creative writing and offer one-to-one creative mentoring – see my ‘Teaching’ page for more information and do get in touch via the Contact form if you’re interested in working with me. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average.Electrifying … This slim novel is a pocket epic; you will read it in no time but be thinking about it for ages after . Based on the lives of two medieval mystics, Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe, the novel explores medieval women’s lives, the effects of grief and trauma, and the genesis of women’s writing. I was a bit sniffy about it when it turned up, Cathy, but was so impressed with the writing and the way she gets inside these two very different women’s minds. It is a fictionalised account of the meeting between Kempe, a wealthy wife and mother to fourteen children, and Mother Julian of Norwich, daughter of a merchant and widowed mother. I tore through this -- JULIA ARMFIELD, author of OUR WIVES UNDER THE SEA For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy on My Little Pain is a novel of rare brightness and clarity, concise and yet capacious: it illuminates the meeting of two extraordinary women like a shaft of sunlight -- IMOGEN HERMES GOWAR, author of Women's Prize-shortlisted THE MERMAID AND MRS HANCOCK Magnificent, bold and compelling .

I love historical fiction and this short story is an affecting interpretation of the lives of Margery Kempe and Julian of Norwich, women of 15 century East Anglia whose visions of Christ steered the direction of their lives.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 anchorite continued to explain that a double-minded person in the soul is always unstable and unsteady in all their ways. 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. The audiobook was fun though, it’s the first time I’ve heard multiple people reading one so at least there was that.