I, Julian: The fictional autobiography of Julian of Norwich

Product Information

Gilbert uses her own experience of cancer – in particular the dreadful constipation she endured as a result of the anti-sickness medication she was prescribed – to evoke Julian’s ordeal of bodily pain. It is mostly fiction as so little is actually known about Julian but it has been written with great sensitivity and is very believable. Battling grief, plague, the church and societal expectations, and compelled by her powerful visions, Julian finds a way to live a life of freedom – as an anchoress, bricked up in a small room on the side of a church. Yet first through her visions, then through her later years of contemplation she gains a deep and abiding sense of God's love. The young Julian of Norwich encounters the strangeness of death: first her father, then later her husband and her child.

The 14th revelation of the parable of the Lord and Servant is the most intriguing and I think its reinterpretation of the Fall is completely brilliant. It is as if we have finally found the lost autobiography of one of the medieval world's most important women . Immediately following her visions, Julian related the experience to her confessor priest, Thomas, who wrote down what might be thought of as the ‘short version’ of the revelations.To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. And the person speaking would after a time fall into silence, and she would hold their gaze with her loving look, and the love would reflect in their faces as sweet lightness. This rather wonderful fictional autobiography was published to coincide with the 650th anniversary of Julian first experiencing, in May 1373, the series of 16 visions she wrote about in Revelations of Divine Love. As time passes, she must overcome the departure and passing of her ‘minders’: those who love her, including her maid Alice, her confessor Thomas, and her benefactor the Countess of Sussex. It is a beautiful, intensely moving achievement which not only excites literary admiration: it renews the reader's faith that 'all shall be well'.

You can unsubscribe from our list at any point by changing your preferences, or contacting us directly. Julian's meditative and other spiritual practices give her insights that almost match those of Buddhism. I can’t enumerate all 16 here, but Revelation 14, on the subject of sin and prayer, is of particular importance.

Tender, luminous, meditative and powerful, this is a powerful fictional retelling of the life of Julian of Norwich - the mother, mystic and radical. Claire Gilbert inhabits Julian of Norwich in the way that Hilary Mantel immersed herself in Cromwell. 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.

As a mystic, her interpretation of the visions she experiences lead her to the famous conclusion that “All will be Well.Slightly Foxed introduces its readers to books that are no longer new and fashionable but have lasting appeal.

I fell in love with her candour, her lively language, the immediacy of her visions as she conveyed them in her writing. From the author of Miles to Go before I Sleep comes I, Julian, the account of a medieval woman who dares to tell her own story, battling grief, plague, the church and societal expectations to do so. Sin is behovely (inevitable in context, perhaps beneficial to someone) and carries no fault (it is simply bad, like a trip or a fall). I, Julian is beautifully written, capturing the voice of a woman we can only really know through very brief historical records and her own centuries old words with a clarity that is compelling. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others.It demands careful reading and is hard going in places – especially Chapters 21 to 27, the account of Julian’s “revelations” or “showings” – her visions of God – seen over two days during an illness she suffered in the year 1373. All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well', but knew very little about. 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. Claire Gilbert considers Julian of Norwich to be the mother of English literature, and believes she should stand alongside Chaucer.