Prize for the Fire
During England’s Reformation, when Henry VIII breaks from Rome and Cromwell is closing monasteries, fear and unease take hold with each new execution, religious laws change frequently, and new beliefs are embraced. In 1537 Lincolnshire, we meet 15-year-old Anne Askew, an educated gentlewoman. Anne is an actual historic figure who wrote her story in The Examinations of Anne Askew, one of the first women to write in English.
When Anne’s sister Maddie dies, she must marry Maddie’s betrothed, Thomas Kyme, as a replacement. Kyme is a papist, and a brutish man. Anne’s inability to conform to wifely expectations and to Kyme’s and his mother’s harsh rules result in severe beatings and punishments. She finds comfort in reading Maddie’s English translation of the Holy Scriptures found hidden in her sister’s dowry chest. When Kyme discovers and destroys Anne’s Bible, it doesn’t deter her. She goes to the cathedral to read the Great Bible chained to the reading table. This defiant act escalates Kyme’s violence.
The author writes powerfully of this world of diminished and marginalized women when men have the duty to administer “discipline” to maintain control of a rebellious wife, and women are prohibited from owning and reading religious texts. A woman’s view of the religious turmoil under the rule of Henry VIII is welcome. We also see a young Anne grow from impulsive and rebellious into a mature woman, scholarly and deeply spiritual, who has found her calling. Still resisting conformity and strong in her faith, she is respected for her biblical knowledge and her English translations from Latin. Katherine Parr, also a reformist, summons Anne to translate other texts and read to her court. When winds of change turn, the results of challenging Catholic doctrine are horrifying. Prize for the Fire has the tone and feel of Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall, and it stands tall among the best of Tudor historical fiction.
