… ‘these odd circumstances where soul touches soul are Eucharistic.’

Remember Me by Penelope Wilcock (the 6^th in the Hawk and Dove series) takes up and continues to follow the threads of life in the medieval monastery of St. Alcuin.

Father William struggles with the finances of the Abbey, struggles against his falling in love and agonizes over his vows. 

The unraveling of the scroll of life in St Alcuin’s is linked by splashes and splodges of the characters’ very humanness. These people are revealed. They are alive. Their pride, despair, humility, anger and gratitude are teased and held together by the gold of love as vibrant and real as those of the most precious of illuminated manuscripts, filled with precious moments such as Abbott  John’s musings about the Good Thief and the relationship of dismember to remember, in preparation for a homily to the community,

‘…if this life tears a man apart, dismembers him, the power and grace of Christ will remember him, make him whole…’

So enthralled was I by Remember Me, I had to purchase The Hawk and the Dove trilogy immediately.

Now I am able to continue wandering through across this wonderful medieval landscape that is the St Alcuin community.  I am gripped by the lives of those unveiled. I have laughed and cried my way through them and been amazed by Wilcock’s imagery that wrings these emotions from me. Even her simple descriptions of the kitchen gardens are of rendered so that one is present.

Certainly the discovery of new-to-me author, Penelope Wilcock, is a treasure.

I have purchased the 4^th and 5^th novels, The Hardest Thing to Do and The Hour Before Dawn.

One could go on and on about the revelations of life and wisdom held within these pages.  I won’t!

Read them for yourself. Enjoy!

A netgalley ARC