A Vision of Light by Judith Merkle Riley

I like to hear books read, I thought, but I have never heard one about women. The more I thought on it, the better it was. Margaret, answered the Voice, isn’t it a good idea? God never gives bad ones. Voice, I said, how do I know you are from God, and not from the Devil, tempting me into something foolish? As for writing, do as others do: get someone to write it for you. Sometimes small deeds can show big ideas. There is nothing wrong with being a woman, and doing ordinary things. How shall I write a book, and what shall I put in it, since I have never done any great deeds? I have no letters, and do not know Latin. I am only a woman, I said to the voice in my mind. In the Year of Our Lord 1355, three days after the Feast of the Epiphany, God put in my mind that I must write a book. ‘Fascinating and factual…If all chronicles of earthly life were recorded with such drama, flair, and wit, the world would be full of history majors’ Los Angeles Times Read more ‘Both arresting and absorbing’ The New York Times

But this is a world where a clever woman is at constant risk of being accused of witchcraft…Ī Vision of Light, first in the critically acclaimed historical Margaret of Ashbury Trilogy is a remarkable novel that challenges all of our notions about women’s roles in the medieval era, perfect for fans of Ariana Franklin, Sarah Perry and Jessie Burton. 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. 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.

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. Young, wealthy and twice married, Margaret has a modest enough ambition: she wishes to write a book. A village girl receives a divine vision that will lead her into the chambers of the English Inquisition…

A Vision of Light by Judith Merkle Riley