Robyn Cadwallader
Author of The Anchoress
About the Author
Robyn Cadwallader is an Australian writer based in Canberra, Australia. She taught creative writing and English Literature at university. Her PhD thesis was published as Three Methods for Reading the Thirteenth-Century Seinte Marherete. She gave up teaching to focus on writing. She has published show more prize-winning short stories and reviews. Her work also includes a book of poetry entitled I Paint Unafraid and a short play entitled Artemisia. Her novel The Anchoress won the Varuna LitLink NSW Byron Bay Unpublished Manuscript Award in 2010. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: Author website
Works by Robyn Cadwallader
We Are Better Than This: Essays and Poems on Australian Asylum Seeker Policy (2015) — Editor — 6 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1950
- Gender
- female
- Nationality
- Australia
- Places of residence
- ACT, Australia
- Occupations
- Lecturer
Editor - Short biography
- Robyn Cadwallader has published numerous, prize-winning short stories and reviews, as well as a book of poetry and a non-fiction book based on her PhD thesis concerning attitudes to virginity and women in the Middle Ages. She lives among vineyards outside Canberra when not travelling to England for research, visiting ancient archaeological sites along the way.
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Reviews
Very interesting. A thoughtful and absorbing historical debut novel that speaks to faith, desire and hope. Haunting beautiful.
Pretty sure I came across this because of a CR review. A short-ish novel about a woman who anchoress to become the anchoress of an abbey. In the middle ages the practice of walling up a woman gave prestige and extra bonus holiness to the church. I’m extremely fascinated and a little repulsed by the practice, but books about characters who chose these constrained lifestyles interest me greatly. What I liked about the book was it’s quietness. We are with Sarah through her very human struggles with the physical and emotional tolls of such a life, and though there are dramatic parts, it still feels sort of subdued.… (more)
An outstanding debut novel which explores the psychology of extreme devotion: in 13th-century England a 17-year-old girl is willingly "buried alive," shut up in a single room for the rest of her life so she can devote herself to prayer and contemplation. But no (wo)man is an island: she has two maids and a confessor, although curtains are supposed to separate them at all times. A cat also insists on joining her. Richly evocative of its time and place yet very accessible.
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Statistics
- Works
- 5
- Members
- 307
- Popularity
- #76,700
- Rating
- 3.8
- Reviews
- 15
- ISBNs
- 50
- Languages
- 1
Readers of The Anchoress (2015) will remember Eleanor, the child who is taught to read and write by Sarah, the anchoress. Twenty years later in The Fire and the Rose, the orphaned Eleanor is working as a housemaid for a wool merchant in 13th century Lincoln. She has hopes of getting more satisfying work as a scribe, refusing a patronising offer from marriage from Jevon, a man who tells her he's prepared to overlook the birthmark on her face.
Unsurprisingly, Eleanor decided she was better without a man at all.
But then there's Asher, a Jewish spice merchant...
Initially, Eleanor shares some of the prejudices she hears all around her, but her regular visits to buy spice piques her interest in the Hebrew script. He's intrigued that she can read and write, and despite the prohibitions — social and legal — a covert relationship eventually results in the awkwardness of a pregnancy. When her pregnancy is known, her employer sends her packing, leaving Eleanor without an income or a home.
The friendship of other women supports Eleanor through this difficult time. Because I take an interest in the way that older women are represented in fiction, I particularly liked the dynamic characterisation of Marchota, an older Jewish businesswoman reviled for her alleged part in the kidnapping and torture of a boy called Luke. Her dignity and resilience in the face of persecution is impressive, and she becomes Eleanor's mainstay despite her own troubles. During the real-time chronology of this novel, there were mass imprisonments of Jews, arbitrary executions, punishing taxation and the humiliating requirement forcing Jews to wear a yellow badge, and these statutes affect the Jewish characters at different times.
Asher, Marchota, Chera and Milla are all impacted by restrictions on how they can make a living, measures intended to pressure them into conversion. The looming forced expulsion of all Jews from England forces Eleanor to consider whether she should convert so that they can marry and leave England together. But Cadwallader doesn't romanticise things...
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2023/05/03/the-fire-and-the-rose-2023-by-robyn-cadwalla...… (more)