The Fire and the Rose
Eleanor is a young servant born with a disfiguring birthmark who has an unusual skill for a woman living in the City of Lincoln in the 13th century. She is a scribe, having first learned letters as a child from a holy woman – who features in the author’s earlier novel The Anchoress. The parchment men are dismissive, even suspicious, of her, as women should not have knowledge of written words.
When she embarks on a secret love affair with Asher, a Jewish spice seller, and has a child, Eleanor must weave a dangerous path, as this is an era that has sinister links to what would happen seven centuries later in Europe, i.e., the Holocaust. Forced to wear yellow badges, accused of ritual child murder and generally disliked because of their acumen with money, the Jews suffer persecution. Anyone caught associating with them suffers as well, and many are imprisoned, tortured, burnt at the stake, or hanged. Eventually, the King orders all Jews into exile. Eleanor has to rely on herself as she negotiates these terrifying events in which religion, superstition and prejudice overtake reason or compassion.
The novel’s main strength is in its detailed, pragmatic portrayal of the medieval world. The characters, however, remain a little elusive, as even the most enlightened individuals of that era were still limited by the strictures on their lives and an unwavering adherence to their class and religion, attitudes that enlightened modern readers may find difficult to grasp. The conclusion is to be expected, and there are excellent author’s notes on the background. A perceptive book that serves to remind us of the power of love, and words, and how both can change history.
