I, Julian: The fictional autobiography of Julian of Norwich

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For younger bookworms – and nostalgic older ones too – there’s the Slightly Foxed Cubs series, in which we’ve reissued a number of classic nature and historical novels. The cell has windows – one on to the outside world, at which people could seek her counsel, another into the adjacent church – and her daily needs are attended to by her maid Alice. Julian's manuscripts are protected by trusted sisters and are passed from hand to hand, become the first book to be written by a woman in English. The fictional autobiography I, Julian, published with unexpectedly appropriate timing at the 650th anniversary of Julian’s May 1373 visions, is the result.

You can unsubscribe from our list at any point by changing your preferences, or contacting us directly. What seems indisputable is that Julian was the author of the first work written in English by a woman.

Hold on tight: the intense first-person narrative is quite hard to read, with many strange formulations of language, but… it is worth it to persevere.

We see Julian’s early life from 1347: childhood, the great Plague, death of her father, her marriage, recurrence of plague, death of Julian’s husband and daughter, and her rejection of the prospect of remarriage.The young Julian of Norwich encounters the strangeness of death: first her father, then later her husband and her child.