Shame on me for treating Pip Williams’ The Bookbinder of Jericho so badly. In my defense, it wasn’t in pristine condition when I picked it up from our local street library. I was reading it among the giant rhododendrons in the park at Blackheath, in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales. The noise of cicadas in the surrounding gum trees was incredible, but nothing prevented me being transported to Oxford.
A world away from Oxford, but there in spirit,
Pip Williams is a London born Australia author, whose debut novel, The Dictionary of Lost Words’ was a critically acclaimed best seller. Her books are meticulously researched, which I really appreciate.
The Bookbinder of Jericho reminded me so much of my dear friend Cath Wallis from Maidenhead. In later life Cath was apprenticed to a bookbinder in Cirencester and later re-bound books for David Attenborough.
On a more personal level, it brought back memories of a week I spent at Oxford researching in the Bodleian Library. Like the main character in the novel I had no orthodox entrée to the city’s hallowed academic institutions. My presence was due only to a reference letter from Sydney’s Mitchell Library.
Luckily for me the diaries I wanted to access were held in the wonderful Duke Humfrey’s Room. Only the excitement of what I found in them prevented me simply sitting there in awe of my surroundings.
Such a special place to work.
As I read The Bookbinder I kept thinking of another favourite book, Thomas Hardy’s Jude the Obscure. And sure enough I discovered that Hardy’s Beersheba is believed to have been based on Jericho. One of Jericho’s pubs has even been renamed Jude the Obscure.
The Bookbinder of Jericho is about love, loss, class, privilege and aspiration, set during the years of WWI. Identical twin sisters Margaret (Peg) and Maudie live on a canal boat and bind books at the Oxford University Press. Peg, like Jude Fawley before her, dreams of a university education. However, Maudie is content in her own world. This character’s ‘otherness’ is handled so perfectly by Pip Williams. To me it is what makes The Bookbinder of Jericho very special.
I’ve dropped the book back to the Wentworth Street library now, although it was tempting to keep it.
I was delighted to find a video of Pip Williams hand binding her own copy of The Bookbinder. To view it, CLICK HERE
An interesting post, and lovely to see mention of Cath Wallis. Is she still in the same house in Maidenhead which is where I first visited you?
She certainly is Marcia. She could never leave because she has too many treasures to house.