image of person or book cover 6333978037903554730.jpg
This image has been sourced from Booktopia
y separately published work icon The Fire and the Rose single work   novel   historical fiction  
Issue Details: First known date: 2023... 2023 The Fire and the Rose
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'From Robyn Cadwallader, the award-winning and critically acclaimed author of The Anchoress and Book of Colours, comes a vibrant, richly imagined and deeply moving novel set in the turbulent world of thirteenth-century England.

'England, 1276: Forced to leave her home village, Eleanor moves to Lincoln to work as a housemaid. She's prickly, independent and stubborn, her prospects blighted by a port-wine birthmark across her face. Unusually for a woman, she has fine skills with ink and quill, and harbours a secret ambition to work as a scribe, a profession closed to women.

'Eleanor discovers that Lincoln is a dangerous place, divided by religious prejudice, the Jews frequently the focus of violence and forced to wear a yellow badge. Eleanor falls in love with Asher, a Jewish spicer, who shares her love of books and words, but their relationship is forbidden by law. When Eleanor is pulled into the dark depths of the church's machinations against Jews and the king issues an edict expelling all Jews from England, Eleanor and Asher are faced with an impossible choice.

'Vivid, rich, deep and sensual, The Fire and the Rose is a tender and moving novel about how language, words and books have the power to change and shape lives. Most powerfully, it is also a novel about what it is to be made 'other', to be exiled from home and family. But it is also a call to recognise how much we need the other, the one we do not understand, making it a strikingly resonant and powerfully hopeful novel for our times.' (Publication summary)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

Other Formats

  • Large print.
  • Dyslexic edition.
  • Braille.
  • Sound recording.

Works about this Work

Robyn Cadwallader : The Fire and the Rose Ann Skea , 2024 single work review
— Appears in: The Newtown Review of Books , February 2024;

— Review of The Fire and the Rose Robyn Cadwallader , 2023 single work novel
'Robyn Cadwallader’s third novel is set against the anti-Semitism of the thirteenth century and England’s expulsion of the Jews.'
The Walls Speak : Novelising the Other in Medieval England Naama Grey-Smith , 2023 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , July no. 455 2023; (p. 39)

— Review of The Fire and the Rose Robyn Cadwallader , 2023 single work novel

'Centuries before the Kremlin had a digital presence and long before Ivermectin was trending on Twitter, an early form of disinformation campaigning emerged in medieval Europe: blood libel. These anti-Semitic accusations claimed that Christian children were being killed as part of Jewish religious ritual, a lie used to justify violence against Jewish communities.' (Introduction)   

The Walls Speak : Novelising the Other in Medieval England Naama Grey-Smith , 2023 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , July no. 455 2023; (p. 39)

— Review of The Fire and the Rose Robyn Cadwallader , 2023 single work novel

'Centuries before the Kremlin had a digital presence and long before Ivermectin was trending on Twitter, an early form of disinformation campaigning emerged in medieval Europe: blood libel. These anti-Semitic accusations claimed that Christian children were being killed as part of Jewish religious ritual, a lie used to justify violence against Jewish communities.' (Introduction)   

Robyn Cadwallader : The Fire and the Rose Ann Skea , 2024 single work review
— Appears in: The Newtown Review of Books , February 2024;

— Review of The Fire and the Rose Robyn Cadwallader , 2023 single work novel
'Robyn Cadwallader’s third novel is set against the anti-Semitism of the thirteenth century and England’s expulsion of the Jews.'

Awards

Last amended 4 Aug 2023 09:20:38
Settings:
  • c
    England,
    c
    c
    United Kingdom (UK),
    c
    Western Europe, Europe,
  • 1276
Newspapers:
    Powered by Trove
    X