I knew I was going to love this book as soon as I heard about it. I think I owe thanks to Amanda Curtin (whose novels I love) for bringing it to my attention on her blog but also to Sue at Whispering Gums and maybe elsewhere as well. There was bound to be a buzz over Robyn Cadwallader’s second novel Book of Colours after the success of her debut The Anchoress…
I love all things to do with the art of illumination. I am the one in art galleries all over Europe and the UK giving the staff conniptions because I am up so close peering at the exquisite tiny paintings that decorate medieval Bibles and Books of Hours and other illuminated manuscripts. I was in heaven when the State Library of Victoria put on an exhibition called The Medieval Imagination and yes, I bought the book to appease my hankering to #InMyDreams own one of these illuminations of my very own.
I love this form of religious art because although the illuminations are focussed on biblical stories, the limners (the people who painted the illuminations) couldn’t help themselves… they also included all kinds of other weird and wonderful things as well. I share Robyn Cadwallader’s fascination with these strange juxtapositions, as she explains in her Author’s Note:
Many of us will have seen photos, and perhaps even exhibitions, of sumptuously decorated books from the Middle Ages. My attention, though, has always been drawn to the margins of books of hours, as they are known, where birds, animals, funny and fantastical creatures and even scenes of sin and bawd are often depicted – all alongside prayers and illuminations of Christ and the Virgin Mary. (p.352)
This historical novel was everything I hoped it would be. It is structured around the life of the woman, Lady Mathilda Fitzjohn, who commissioned an illuminated book of hours at a time when all was going well for her privileged family, and also the trials and tribulations of the family of limners who work on the book for her. But the early years of the 14th century in England were a difficult time for both rich and poor, because in additional to unusually atrocious weather which caused The Great Famine of 1315-17, there was also political turmoil resulting in warfare between King Edward II and his opponents.
The book begins with a very brief chapter in 1322 when Mathilda receives the book, not long after the death of her husband Robert. The reader knows that something is amiss, but must read on to find out why it is that she frowns and says: ‘I’m sure the book will bring me comfort, even as it is.’ The next chapter – prefaced by an excerpt from The Art of Illumination which appears to be a sort of handbook for limners – takes place two years earlier with the arrival of William (Will) Asshe in London. He has fled from some tragedy in Cambridge, through freezing weather, in time to hear grumblings in the streets about the rich hoarding their grain while the poor go hungry. Although there is some doubt about his missing papers and the reasons for his departure from Cambridge, he gets work with the limner John Dancaster whose beautiful work is renowned all over London and beyond.
John and his wife Gemma (who turns out to be the covert author of The Art of Illumination) are prepared to overlook Will’s antecedents for two reasons. Firstly, they have just received the commission for Mathilda’s book of hours, and secondly, unknown to their agent Southflete or anyone else, John is – disastrously – not well. Within the workshop, their son Nick and their apprentice Benedict have no idea that Gemma is repairing her husband’s work on the quiet in order to preserve John’s pride (and his refusal to admit to his difficulties). But Will soon works out what’s going on, and although he doesn’t say anything, he is furious because he was hoping to restore his own reputation by working for a master limner, not by working alongside a mere woman.
Mathilda, meanwhile, is dealing with the fallout of her husband Robert fighting on the losing side against the king. She has to abandon her estate and leave it to the looters, and hope that she and her children will escape the king’s vengeance and be left alone with the remnants of her property elsewhere.
This in itself makes for an interesting story, but what made it really interesting for any art lover, is the way Cadwallader reveals the thinking behind the images in the book of hours. ‘Praying the hours’ was something that devout women did in an era when religious belief was near universal and when the world was the way it was, because ‘God had ordained it so’. But there were also other purposes for a book of hours. Lady Mathilda explains to her sceptical husband Robert who thinks that such books are only for nuns, that Lady Warren shows hers off to everyone because it is illuminated with the family heraldry that declares their lineage to all who see it. For Lady Mathilda, the idea of the book declaring their status like this, is not just to show who they are, but also who they intend to be when an expected inheritance comes their way. It’s a strategy, she tells Robert, analogous to how he decorates his banners, shields and pennants. And if they ask the illuminators to also paint the heraldic devices of those around them, the book becomes a pledge of support to them as well. So the book can help to strengthen alliances.
But when Robert dies, and she is grieving not just for him but also for her lost ambitions and her sense of safety for herself and her little children, the book becomes closer to Gemma’s vision for it. Some scenes will evoke memories of babes lost in childbirth, something both women share despite the difference in wealth and status. Gemma depicts the face of Mary at the Annunciation to show that the honour bestowed by the angel is also accompanied by Mary’s fear of being a mother with no identifiable father for the child, a crisis of status and identity which Mathilda will come to share in a different way. And Gemma also hopes that the lady will recognise that the scenes of workers in bountiful fields are a lie, because the fields are barren and the people for whom Mathilda is responsible on her estate are starving.
Book of Colours is a beautiful book. Highly recommended.
Author: Robyn Cadwallader
Title: Book of Colours
Publisher: Fourth Estate (Harper Collins Australia), 2018
ISBN: 9781460752210
Source: Kingston Library
Available from Fishpond: Book of Colours
ANZ LitLovers LitBlog 
So glad you liked it Lisa. It’s a couple of months yet before I will get to it I think, but I’m looking forward to it. The conversation I went to was fascinating. Robyn Cadwallader loves illuminated ms as well – obviously!
I love the idea of your giving gallery attendants conniptions!
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By: whisperinggums on June 13, 2018
at 7:30 pm
LOL I am shameless when I’ve travelled all those kilometres and want to see an art work properly!
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By: Lisa Hill on June 13, 2018
at 10:43 pm
*squeals* I didn’t know about this one. I love illuminated scripts as well (many, many years ago I was a calligrapher and I’ll always be drawn to the detail in illuminated texts) so cant wait to read this. (I still think about elements of The Anchoress).
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By: Kate W on June 13, 2018
at 8:19 pm
Kate, you will be enchanted. Her descriptions are so vivid, you can almost see the images:) And the preface to each chapter where in The Art of Illumination she explains how to treat the vellum, how to make the colours, oh, it’s just gorgeous.
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By: Lisa Hill on June 13, 2018
at 10:44 pm
My copy of this arrived today!
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By: Theresa Smith Writes on June 13, 2018
at 8:23 pm
I can’t wait to see your review too, Theresa:)
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By: Lisa Hill on June 13, 2018
at 10:44 pm
Just popped over to Netgalley and scored a copy – yay!
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By: Kate W on June 13, 2018
at 8:43 pm
Yes!!!!
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By: Lisa Hill on June 13, 2018
at 10:45 pm
Fabulous review, Lisa :-)
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By: amandacurtin on June 13, 2018
at 11:02 pm
Thanks Amanda – it’s just such a wonderful book!
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By: Lisa Hill on June 13, 2018
at 11:42 pm
Oh my goodness – if you liked this, you will LOVE Meetings With Remarkable Manuscripts. It’s nonfiction, but the author (who is a librarian at the Parker Library in Cambridge) is clever and funny, very accessible, and the full-colour illustrations are utterly stunning. It’s in paperback now, so portable too!
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By: Elle on June 13, 2018
at 11:53 pm
Sold! I’ve just ordered it, it’s less than $20 from Fishpond!!!!!!
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By: Lisa Hill on June 14, 2018
at 10:10 am
MY WORK HERE IS DONE.
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By: Elle on June 14, 2018
at 4:24 pm
Don’t say that, Elle, your recommendations are welcome any time! BTW I returned Book of Colours to my library today and earbashed the young librarian about how good it was – and I suspect that it’s not going to get re-shelved, it’s going to be on the bench for quiet times between borrowers!
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By: Lisa Hill on June 14, 2018
at 5:40 pm
Ahhh thanks! I’m really evangelising Meetings With Remarkable Manuscripts, it’s definitely one of the best books I’ll read this year.
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By: Elle on June 14, 2018
at 6:29 pm
Is there artwork in the book Lisa? Just wondering if it would work on audio.
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By: sharkell on June 14, 2018
at 7:26 am
No, there isn’t. It’s all just meticulously described so that you can see it in your imagination. Though I would say that if you’ve never seen the kind of artwork and how it’s done within these medieval books, it would enhance the reading to browse around online to see some images so that you can get an idea of how they used gold leaf and how they decorated the margins and so on. It’s a bit like the clothes, you know? If you’ve seen a woman’s wimple, you see it in your mind’s eye when a woman in a book puts one on!
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By: Lisa Hill on June 14, 2018
at 8:33 am
Hi Lisa, I too loved this book. Cadwallader is a beautiful writer. You might remember a couple of years ago the Melbourne State library had a Medieval exhibition of manuscripts for Rare Book Week. They were amazing.
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By: Meg on June 14, 2018
at 4:13 pm
Yes, that’s the one, I went to it twice. I went to the Persian one too, and that was great as well.
We must meet up one day, at an SLV exhibition, eh?
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By: Lisa Hill on June 14, 2018
at 5:42 pm
Hi Lisa, that would be great.
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By: Meg on June 14, 2018
at 5:59 pm
Thanks Lisa. I loved this & I have just walked in with my new copy of The Book of Colours. I love illuminated manuscripts – spent ages with The book of Kells and I have been to some marvelous exhibitions over the years. All of the old libraries in Italy have wonderful examples too – the library of Pope Pius II in the Duomo of Siena is stunning. Looking forward to starting this book today.
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By: Jan Wallace Dickinson on June 16, 2018
at 10:52 am
I’s sure you will love it and I look forward to seeing your review:)
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By: Lisa Hill on June 16, 2018
at 7:04 pm
[…] Lisa (ANZLitLovers) loved this book, and Angharad Lodwick (one of last year’s Litbloggers) was also impressed. I also […]
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By: Robyn Cadwallader, Book of colours (#BookReview) | Whispering Gums on September 20, 2018
at 10:45 pm
I enjoyed your review Lisa. Like you I think illuminated books are gorgeous but I do tend to be overwhelmed at times by the detail. I did love how Cadwallader discussed the decisions the limners made about the decorations and images – what to include and why.
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By: whisperinggums on September 21, 2018
at 8:29 pm
Ah, it’s the detail that I love. Little figures ploughing the fields or weaving the wool, they’re a snapshot of the lives of ordinary people that we don’t normally get to see in grand heroic portraits of the rich and famous.
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By: Lisa Hill on September 21, 2018
at 10:11 pm
I can understand that. I think in those exhibitions with so much to see I feel too overwhelmed to spend too much time on one picture. I’ll think differently next time though.
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By: whisperinggums on September 21, 2018
at 11:09 pm
That’s the value of a gorgeous book like this one. …
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By: Lisa Hill on September 21, 2018
at 11:14 pm
[…] Book of Colours, by Robyn Cadwallader […]
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By: Readings’ List of 100 ‘great reads’ by Australian women (and some reviews) | ANZ LitLovers LitBlog on November 25, 2018
at 4:06 pm
[…] Book of Colours by Robyn Cadwallader […]
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By: 2018 ANZLitLovers Australian and New Zealand Best Books of the Year | ANZ LitLovers LitBlog on December 15, 2018
at 5:36 pm
[…] Book of Colours by Robyn Cadwallader (see my review) […]
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By: 2019 Miles Franklin Longlist | ANZ LitLovers LitBlog on May 23, 2019
at 9:57 am
[…] Book of Colours by Robyn Cadwallader, see my review […]
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By: 2019 Voss Literary Prize longlist | ANZ LitLovers LitBlog on October 8, 2019
at 10:06 pm
[…] Book of Colours by Robyn Cadwallader, see my review […]
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By: 2019 Voss Literary Prize shortlist | ANZ LitLovers LitBlog on November 15, 2019
at 3:03 pm
Thanks for your review, this sounds really good. I recently (OMG, that was 1 year ago!!) read another historical novel related to art, the art of porcelain: The Blue, by Nancy Bilyeau. superb: https://wordsandpeace.com/2018/11/27/book-review-the-blue/
And I’m currently reading Olga’s Egg, by Sophie Law, a historical novel about the Fabergé eggs! Really good so far
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By: WordsAndPeace on November 29, 2019
at 3:36 am
Oooh, I want them both!
I have seen the Fabergé collection at the Kremlin, and they are to die for. Every museum I go to, I play a game of choosing which item I’m going to steal. (I do this out of the hearing of the guards, of course). I discovered in the Kremlin that I was not the only person to play this game, there was a UK tourist there who was also plotting the same thing and also finding it difficult to choose. We wanted them all!
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By: Lisa Hill on November 29, 2019
at 8:51 am
[…] enjoyed this historical novel, recommended to me by Emma from Words and Peace when she came across my review of Robyn Cadwallader’s Book of Colours which features a 14th century family of limners who create exquisite illuminated […]
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By: The Blue, by Nancy Bilyeau | ANZ LitLovers LitBlog on December 21, 2019
at 6:04 pm
[…] loved being in the San Marco Basilica viewing glorious ornate missals and that puts me in mind of The Book of Colours by Robyn Cadwallader. It’s a wonderful story of a woman’s role in keeping her […]
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By: Six Degrees of Separation: from The Turn of the Screw, to…. | ANZ LitLovers LitBlog on October 3, 2020
at 2:43 pm
[…] love looking at illuminated manuscripts, and I loved reading Robyn Cadwallader’s Book of Colours. It was a wonderful story about a woman from a medieval family of illuminators who stepped into […]
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By: Six Degrees of Separation: from Redhead by the Side of the Road, to…. | ANZ LitLovers LitBlog on February 6, 2021
at 1:26 pm
[…] many novels in the marketplace I don’t know where to begin) and Robyn Cadwallader (author of Book Of Colours) where they had a genial conversation about the little details that really make historical fiction […]
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By: 2021 HNSA Virtual Conference | ANZ LitLovers LitBlog on October 24, 2021
at 2:26 pm