By pure chance I came across The Bookbinder of Jericho in a bookstore and - being a traditionally trained bookbinder myself - I of course had to take it home.

Now I'm 150 pages into the story of a female bookbinder in Oxford during the start of World War 1, and I have to say I'm really impressed how well the craft is represented. The author clearly did her research! On top of that I'm learning quite a bit about the war, working women's lives and British society in the 1910s.

I can absolutely recommend this and already read a couple of my favourite passages to my colleagues at the workshop ☺️

The Bookbinder review

5/5 stars Recommended if you like: history, historical fiction, women's stories, WWI

The Dictionary of Lost Words review This is a great companion to Dictionary of Lost Words, though both could be read as a standalone without there being any issues. Tilda features fairly prominently in this book and we do see Gareth and a brief cameo of Esme. I liked getting to see familiar characters, even if Gareth + Esme's story drove home the tragedy in a different way. I especially liked seeing Women's Words and how much it impacted Peggy! This book picks up around the start of WWI and pretty much follow the course of the war, with a couple chapters taking place afterward and depicting the experience of recovery. The Belgian refugees play a big part of Peggy's story, as well as that of her twin sister, Maude. They forge different connections to the newcomers, but each finds their lives transformed by those relationships. The Spanish Flu also comes in and we get to see how it impacts things at the Bindery as well as Peggy and Maude's lives more personally. It was definitely interesting to see Peggy's struggles getting into Oxford. As a woman who did get into Oxford (graduate school, and Pembroke, not Somerville; also I declined admissions, lol), it was strange to read about all the hoops Peggy had to jump through just to be able to secure her spot. Not just one test, but two, with "Ancient bloody Greek" as one of the subjects, is quite a bit just to get in and study English lit. I really liked how Williams made this a commentary on barriers to entry and how Peggy was able to recognize that the entry exams were just another way to prevent non-aristocratic women from being able to reach for the kind of education offered at Oxford. Oxford's difficult admissions process also ties into the suffragette movement. I didn't know that when Britain passed the law to allow women to vote that it only included certain women and only at the age of 30. Tilda is more closely tied to Peggy and Maude due to her romantic relationship with their late mother and so Peggy has much closer view of the suffragette movement than Esme did. Peggy supports suffrage but also sees the injustice of the bill being pushed prior to/during WWI and how it connects to her own struggles to get into Oxford. Peggy also recognizes how unfair the bill is to the women around her in the Bindery and at home who also don't have a higher education and aren't looking to get into Oxford. Peggy is an interesting character to follow. She's worked at Clarendon Press as a bindery girl since she was ~12, though she dreams of being a Gown in Somerville, Oxford's women's college. She also feels a great responsibility for her twin sister, Maude, who is autistic and communicates through a kind of echolalia. When the war breaks out, Peggy feels she needs to do something and so volunteers to help with the Belgian refugees being housed in Oxford. She comes to enjoy her work and what she feels is freedom from watching over Maude. Peggy clearly has a big heart and big dreams, and she's acutely feels the barriers preventing her from reaching her goals. I liked that Williams made it clear that Peggy loved Maude, but that at times she wishes her twin could be more self-sufficient. At the same time, Peggy gets very jealous when someone new comes into Maude's life and begins caring for her in the way Peggy is used to. It's definitely a real thing that happens with sibling pairs where one sibling requires more accommodations and care, and even though I didn't always agree/like Peggy's thoughts about Maude, it did show a realistic way of coping and helped to show both Peggy's and Maude's growth over the course of the book. There were so many people supporting Peggy throughout her journey. Maude is a big supporter, even if Peggy doesn't always recognize it, and Mrs. Stoddard, the head supervisor of the women's section of the Bindery, is another person who greatly champions Peggy. Gwen, a Somerville student Peggy meets volunteering, may be ditzy and doesn't always see her own privilege, but she does introduce Peggy to important Somerillian people and she goes to bat for Peggy and pulls some strings to make it clear to some of the Somerville leaders that Peggy would be a good candidate for both admissions and a scholarship, both of which do open doors for her. I liked how much community was present in this book and how much the women supported each other. Maude may use echolalia to communicate, but she is very observant and good at reading people. She's particularly good at understanding the things people do vs. don't want to talk about and is a comforting influence to one of the Belgian women. Maude also seems to understand just how much Peggy needs her and for the most part is able to accept that role. She's very supportive of Peggy's dreams and I liked seeing them reverse roles when Peggy was studying for the Oxford entrance exams. Instead of Peggy making sure Maude got food and got outside, it was Maude making sure Peggy ate and didn't burn herself out. I enjoyed seeing Maude get the chance to grow into the person she was. Lotte is one of the Belgian refugees and quickly bonds with Maude. Shortly after her arrival she and a few other women begin working at the Bindery and Lotte is paired up with Peggy and Maude, though it's clear from the start she prefers Maude. Lotte's story is a sad one, and while she opens up to Maude pretty easily, it takes her much longer to open up to Peggy, and seemingly only through a 3rd party. She struggles with what happened in Belgium throughout the book and and there are some moments when her PTSD flares. Bastiaan is a Belgian soldier injured during the German invasion. He's one of the soldiers Peggy helps in her volunteer work and the two of them become friends, and then more, during that time. Bastiaan is another person who supports Peggy's dreams and he seems to understand Maude as well. I liked Bastiaan's mannerisms and how gentle he was. Like Lotte, Bastiaan is also dealing with ghosts and struggles with what happened before they were evacuated to England, particularly since he sees himself as someone who should've been able to protect Belgium and its people. I liked Bastiaan and Peggy together. They're able to open up to each other in a way they can't to others, and I liked seeing how they helped each other and how they grew together. Their relationship also shows the struggle and balance that women had to face between education and a career vs. romantic love and a family, particularly if the women were lower class and didn't have family money to fall back on. Peggy loves Bastiaan, but she also wants more out of life. Bastiaan also loves Peggy, but he knows his future isn't in Engand. Thus, they reach something of an impasse. Despite that, their relationship ends the story on a positive and hopeful note (I suspect it's long-distance, though Williams doesn't say explicitly) and I can definitely see them finding a good middle ground where Peggy can have her career and Bastiaan can have his. Tilda, as mentioned, also shows up in this one, though she's more present in letters than in person due to her being in the Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) and deployed to France. It's clear how much Tilda cares for Peggy and Maude, and as the book unfolds it becomes clear that Tilda and the girls' mom were romantically involved and that Tilda played a big role in the girls' lives. It was nice to see them together as a family, and I liked seeing how Tilda was with Peggy and Maude. I also think it was clever to include Tilda's letters at the end of some of the chapters so that we could get an inside view into what things were like in France. Williams does not pack her punches and Tilda's letters make the brutality and tragedy of the war even more clear than Peggy's own experiences volunteering do. Overall, I really enjoyed this book and getting to see things through Peggy's eyes. I think Esme's story packed a more emotional punch than Peggy's, but I still felt deeply for the people in this story and the circumstances that brought them together. The book ends on a happy note and the characters (mostly) seem satisfied with where they've ended up.

The Bookbinder of Jericho by Pip Williams

I love the title of this book which was why I picked it from the NetGalley offerings but didn’t know anything else about it, or what to expect.

What a lovely surprise, Pip Williams has recreated the world of the separated “Town and Gown’ lives in Oxford before and during the First World War wonderfully.  A world inhabited by books and words whichever side of the tracks you are from.

Filled with suffragettes and debutantes and women who work in the Jericho book bindery as well as the men there who go off to war, and those that can’t. 

Recommended.

Courtesy of NetGalley.  

Chilling with Books Corner May 2023, Julia Blake, long roads and hiccups

May came and went far too quickly. I have been caught up with editing and so many other things. The result is I am blogging later than I intended despite a promise to myself about maintaining a routine. Unfortunately, hiccups come at the oddest times and if you let them upset you they take forever to disappear. Everything becomes a long road to travel. The truth is I didn’t seem to accomplish…

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12 December 2023 | Oxford 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

Walking tour of Jericho.

“Nothing is objective, nothing is without flaw or opinion. They’re incredibly human. And what I hadn’t realised until I’d written The Bookbinder of Jericho, was the amount of craft and skill that goes into the book that I hold in my hand.

“The book itself wouldn’t be in my hand unless there were these skilled people behind it; the actual making of a book is an extraordinary thing. And every single book on this shelf has had humans involved that I had never given a second thought to. This book, really, is me giving that second thought.”

i just went to the thrift store and picked up 8 books for $3-4 and guess what?? i found THE LITTLE FRIEND by DONNA MFING TARTT.

for $4. that's insane. i am mindblown.

also, i got 'everything i know about love' by dolly alderton (which has been on my list for a long time)- for $3

other books i got were:

the archive of the forgotten ($3)

the thursday murder club ($3)

remainders of the day ($3)

the bookbinder of jericho ($4)

the brightesr star ($4)

i also got a dull blue tote bag ($5)

13/04/24

today I woke up and had cold lasagna for breakfast (very Garfield core) before hurriedly doing terrible makeup (forgot to put on primer and morphe eyeshadow fallout ensued) and going to work. my boss gave me a million shifts for the break, and I went home and chilled home alone for a few hours. I read some of my new book, the Bookbinder of Jericho. ootd attached: shirt (H&M), pants (thrifted banana republic straight leg jeans), shoes are beat up embroidered converse.

A bit bound up.

I bought text block sheets of the “Bookbinder of Jericho.” The paper wasn’t the best, so I just did a basic case bound. But I made my own cover and endpapers. I suppose I should read it now.

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got tagged by @gyunikum to do a little tag game so here goes!

Last song: Roll Northumbria (Longest Johns cover)

Last movie: oh boy great question. I genuinely think it was the new indiana jones film? i don't watch movies very often

Currently reading: I have literally just started reading Killingly by Katharine Beutner (as in I'm about two pages in), but before that I was reading The Bookbinder of Jericho by Pip Williams (very good, highly recommend!)

Currently craving: brownies from this one dessert place. also a break. also also to get to one really cool bit in my dnd campaign that we didnt have time for last session >:)

tagging: oh man just whoever. if you want to do this just say that i tagged you! also @essayofthoughts because she's where tag games go to die (her words not mine)

Bookhaul October 2023

New Books:

The Group

Rywka's Diary: The Writings of a Jewish Girl from the Lodz Ghetto

Knížka o Babičce a její autorce

Emperor of Rome

The Bookbinder of Jericho

Herc

A Brilliant Night of Stars and Ice

The Arctic Fury

Secondhand Books:

The Pigeon

The Old Capital

Corelli's Mandolin

Cider with Rosie

Denn ich bin krank vor Liebe

The Glass-Blowers

Caleb's Crossing

Catherine Aragon

We

Infamous

Trouble

Harlem Shuffle

Life Among the Savages

Eva Braun: Life with Hitler

The Mad King: The Life and Times of Ludwig II of Bavaria

Whirlpools

Zoya

Galileo's Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith and Love

One Hundred Years of Solitude

The Bookbinder of Jericho • Review

Author: Pip Williams Title: The Bookbinder of Jericho Setting: Oxford England, 1914 – 1918 Saga: No Published: August 1, 2023 Genre: Historical fiction Stars: 4 REVIEW: In The Bookbinder of Jericho, we return to Oxford just at the beginning of the First World War. It’s an emotional and realistic story, it’s noticeable that the author documented herself, it’s a period in which many things…

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Looking forward to the Oxford-set novel The bookbinder of Jericho - I loved the author's previous book, The dictionary of lost words.

Book Review: "The Bookbinder of Jericho" by Pip Williams (@AffirmPress @EasternRegional)

The Bookbinder of Jericho (Affirm Press, March 2023) by Pip Williams Writing the second book is hard, especially when your first book is an international bestseller. The expectation for another triumph, from your supporters and particularly from yourself, can be crushing. But Pip Williams did it, convincingly and with so much grace and compassion. The Bookbinder of Jericho is the companion…

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The Bookbinder of Jericho

by Pip Williams

Publisher: Affirm Press

Book Review of The Bookbinder of Jericho

I needed a bit of reading luck – you know, when you have made so many bad reading choices, you need a book guaranteed to please.  So I picked up this lovely companion novel to Pip Williams’ The Dictionary of Lost Words – a lovely warm read from three years ago. The Bookbinder of Jericho has a similar pleasing quality and covers many of the same key themes – with some of the same characters and…

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