I’ve really been looking forward to reviewing my latest read, The Bookbinder Of Jericho, by Pip Williams.
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It’s the follow-up to her wildly successful debut novel, The Dictionary Of Lost Words.
And the wait for the companion volume is more than worth it.
There are characters the reader already knows, but the author has assiduously avoided making a welter of this familiarity.
It’s 1914 and we meet twins Peggy and Maude, who work in the book bindery at Oxford University Press in the suburb of Jericho.
They are among scores of women who are keeping England ticking over as men of military service age are off fighting in World War I.
Maude is happy to go along with the directive that she and her co-workers are paid to bind the books not read them.
But not Peggy; she takes every chance she can get to enrich her mind and to add to her home library.
This wilfulness puts her job at risk and tries the patience of her bosses regularly.
Set against the backdrop of the ongoing war, the arrival of refugees from the devastated cities of Belgium adds an unexpected complexity to the lives of these people in a burgeoning part of England.
Pip Williams discovered during extensive research that the identity and value of the real work done by the women of the book bindery has never been acknowledged.
Photos of the book binders referred to the women as anonymous, while their male counterparts were individually named.
Book bindery exists to this day and The Bookbinder Of Jericho not only documents the skill it requires, but the love, care and dexterity with which it is undertaken.
When I grew up, my reference material included three beautifully bound volumes of Webster’s Dictionary and a set of Encyclopaedia Britannica, which took pride of place in the bookcase in the family lounge.
Boy did they get a workout, even after the arrival of the internet.
I loved turning those pages, feeling them, their smell and, of course, the information they imparted.
The thirst for knowledge is a wondrous thing, and Pip Williams uses this as her central theme — to irresistible effect.
I encourage you to read her notes and acknowledgements at the back of both books.
They are as enlightening and thought provoking as her novels.
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