A fascinating work of historical fiction, Knox’s Wife is an engaging and elegantly-written
novel from award-winning Scottish author and playwright Janet Walkinshaw.
It’s the first in Walkinshaw’s planned ‘Scottish Reformation’ trilogy, but as the trilogy is connected more by theme and time period then characters, it can easily be treated as a stand-alone novel.
Walkinshaw, whose short stories and plays have been broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio Scotland, has a keen interest in the religious upheavals that shook Britain to its core across the majority of the 16
th century.
Indeed, this is a fertile setting for high drama, intrigue and clashes, both intellectual and physical, as the Protestant Reformation tried to sweep away centuries of Catholic tradition.
At the centre of this crusade in Scotland was Scottish clergyman, theologian and protestant reformer John Knox, but probably this is the first time that he has figured as a prominent figure in a work of fiction.
As well as having a knack for rich, descriptive prose that effortlessly transports the reader to another period in history, Walkinshaw also excels at telling stories from a female perspective, and here Knox’s real-life wife, Marjorie Bowes, is the protagonist through whom we gain a window into those troubled, dangerous times.
Those who fear they may be in for a lesson in theology can rest assured that while the battle between rival dogmas is (rightly) addressed, and done so engagingly, the novel at its heart is a nuanced account of a love affair conducted in a climate of fear and violence.
The author brings to life the conflicted feelings of Marjorie as she takes great personal risks to be with the person she loves.
Those familiar with the period may well have an idea of John Knox as a stern and bloody-minded man. Certainly, that is the way he has been portrayed in modern times, but through its conceit, Knox’s Wife offers up a fresh idea of the private man behind the religious icon.
The novel begins in Tudor England when Marjorie is a child growing up as one of several daughters in a rich and powerful English Catholic family. Amid a climate of paranoia and civil unrest generated by the sweeping religious reforms of King Henry VIII, they must conduct their religious observations in secret, with prayers spoken in closed circles and hushed voices.
As members of the gentry living in the north of the country, her family are deeply embroiled in the Northern rebellion against the enforced Protestant reforms, and she is raised hearing terrifying tales of marauding Scots crossing the border seeking bloody revenge for perceived religious wrongdoings.
When Marjorie is 17, her father Richard is appointed captain of a garrison stationed at Norham Castle - the biggest border stronghold defending against the Scots. It is in this cold and windswept landscape, a stark contrast to the luxurious home in which she grew up, that she first meets John Knox, a protestant Scottish preacher exiled from his own country for his beliefs, and recently released from imprisonment in the French galleys.
He becomes a regular visitor to the Bowes home, tending particularly to Marjorie’s mother, who has been thrown into deep religious, emotional and physical turmoil by the changing face of religion in the country.
Marjorie carries with her the memory of catching her mother in a clandestine embrace with a religious man other than her father, and perhaps marked by this warns Knox that his visits might cause people to gossip.
Soon, however, she discovers that it is herself and not her mother that he has strong feelings for.
Gradually, Marjorie begins to develop romantic feelings of her own but their hopes for a life together will not be easy, hampered by strong opposition from the Bowes family as well as the religious vacillations of the royal court, that lead to Mary Tudor, a Catholic, taking the throne and leading to Knox having to choose exile abroad or risk his life.
There is no shortage of books on the subject of the Protestant Reformation, but the majority concentrate on the English Reformation. As Knox’s Wife ably demonstrates, the Scottish side of the story is every bit as dramatic, and Walkinshaw has made this into a gripping read.
Knox’s Wife by Janet Walkinshaw is available now, priced £7.99 in paperback and £3.80 as an eBook.
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