Why a Booktrail?
1355: A village girl receives a divine vision that will lead her into the chambers of the English Inquisition…
A Vision of Light (Margaret of Ashbury 1)
What you need to know before your trail
Young, wealthy and twice married, Margaret has a modest enough ambition: she wishes to write a book. But this is 1355, and the notion of a woman wanting to record her experiences and thoughts is not just arrogant, it’s possibly heretical.
Three clerics contemptuously decline to be Margaret’s scribe, and it is only starvation that persuades Brother Gregory, a renegade Carthusian friar with a mysterious past, to take on the unseemly task of chronicling her life. As she narrates her life story, an extraordinary tale unfolds filled with perilous brushes with death, where a mix of miracle and Margaret’s innate intellect pull her through. But this is a world where a clever woman is at constant risk of being accused of witchcraft…
Travel Guide
England 14th century
Margaret is a wealthy but illiterate merchant wife who wants to write her memoirs. But these are the times when women were not encouraged to read or write and certainly not to have their own story in their own words, transcribed for all to see. The dome of St Paul’s Cathedral is where the book opens giving a flavour which will spice the entire story with religious overtones.
Brother Gregory, a copyist down on his luck, reluctantly accepts the post. The jobs he usually does are made up of classic, religious texts and important texts of this nature. But this brother reflects the common opinions of the time and his religious and misogynistic callings are like the widely held ones of society as a whole.
Margaret’s stories are varied and build a picture of medieval society – about religious superstition and fear, about tales of witches and woman put on trial for heresy. There are some very violent and shocking scenes as death stalks each and every page
The church was central to the plot as was womens’ place in society.
Booktrail Boarding Pass: A Vision of Light
Destination : England Author/Guide: Judith Merkle Riley Departure Time: 1355
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