Julian of Norwich’s Revelations of Divine Love is the first book in English by a woman; The Book of Margery Kempe is the first autobiography in English by a man or a woman. The devotion of Kempe and Mother Julian is intense and personal, and is in both cases under the scrutiny and criticism of male authorities. Settyth al yowr trust in God and feryth not the langage of the world, for the mor despyte, schame, and repref that ye have in the world the mor is yowr meryte in the sygth of God. A novel that brings back to life two extraordinary medieval women, Julian of Norwich and Margery Kemp. Much has been written about the two, but their choices are often dismissed as some kind of mental illness or a protest against the patriarchy.

I love that MacKenzie’s book has changed that, following the evolution of these two very different women from girlhood through to older age, drawing them inexorably closer with gentle and clear-eyed understanding. It is an extraordinary feat of historical ventriloquism; the women’s inner lives, their religiosity, their sense of place in the world is miraculously conjured . This is a spare, uncluttered book, free of the Wikipedia bric-a-brac that often clogs up historical fiction, but you feel in every sentence the weight of history pressing down on and confining these women. Many were the holy dialogues shared between the anchorite and the woman through their communion in the love of our Lord Jesus Christ during the days they spent together. Two female medieval mystics, Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe, are the twin protagonists of Mackenzie’s debut.Though they are very different characters, by putting their stories side by side, Mackenzie picks out common threads that bind the two together - not just faith, but femininity, grief and the power of language. Mackenzie's novella is compact and neatly structured, weaving the two women's perspectives until they finally meet. It was cool to see their stories draw out in parallel until they finally meet at the end, and how different their lives were but connected by their visions and their faith.

I studied medieval art and literature, falling completely in love with the outrageous marginal images in manuscripts and churches – the obscene carvings on misericords tucked underneath the pious monks’ bottoms, and the bizarre scenes with apes dressed as priests acted out on the margins of English psalters, the finest of which were made in East Anglia. Ho letto le prime 50 pagine tutte d’un fiato, mi sono detta:”oh, finalmente sono incappata in un buon romanzo” e niente, non è stato così. She encouraged her to place all her trust in God and not fear the world’s language, as the more disdain, shame, and reproach she faced in the world, the greater her merit in God’s sight.Stories about girlhood, motherhood, sickness, loss, doubt, and belief; revelations more the powerful than the world is ready to hear. Kempe wrote the first autobiography by anyone in England, female or male, and Julian is the first named female author in our literary history.

This is an extraordinarily well written book which will appeal to all who have any interest in faith or spirituality. But are these women, already deprived of the right to public speech and influence, to give up their very thoughts, too? I’ve been a guest on a number of writing podcasts including: Confessions of a Debut Novelist, A Pair of Bookends, Little Atoms, Mostly Books and The Writing Life.He that is evyrmor dowtyng is lyke to the flood of the see, the whech is mevyd and born abowte wyth the wynd, and that man is not lyche to receyven the gyftys of God. By this means the author reveals to us the inner workings and spiritual struggles of these two women whilst bringing the tale of their lives to the moment when they meet each other, enter into conversation and, through the veiled window of Julian’s cell, find a strange unity of faith. MacKenzie's sumptuous debut For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy On My Little Pain is a beautiful novel, both epic and intimate, about grief, trauma, revelation, hidden lives and the genesis of women’s writing.