Pip Williams (1)

Set in World War I, this story follows the lives of twin sisters Peggy and Maude. Their mother died while they were in their teens and Peggy feels an obligation to take care of Maude, who is a bit slow.

Their mother heavily influenced both girls and because of that Peggy developed a love of reading. At the bindery, she slips all the damaged pages into her pockets to take home and read. She also longs to further her education, but her working class income doesn’t allow for that.

During this time, wounded soldiers from Belgium seek refuge in their community and the sisters join other women to do their part to help the wounded men. Peggy begins a friendship with one of the men that develops into a romance, leaving her to make a choice between marriage or an education.

This is a story with wonderful characters and a look into the lives of the women during WWI and they manage to make their lives better in spite of the hardships that war brings.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group-Ballantine for allowing me to read an advance copy.

I am pleased to offer my honest review and recommend this book to other readers.… (more)

BIBLIOGRAPHIC DETAILS:
-Print: COPYRIGHT ©: 4/6/2021; ISBN 978-0593160190; PUBLISHER: Ballentine Books; First Printing edition; PAGES: 400; UNABRIDGED (Hardcover Info from Amazon)
-Digital: COPYRIGHT ©: 4/6/2021; ISBN: 978-1984820730; PUBLISHER: Ballentine Books; PAGES: 402; UNABRIDGED. (Info from Libby App version [# of pages from amazon])
*Audio: COPYRIGHT ©: 4/6/2021; PUBLISHER: Random House Audio; DURATION: 11 hours, 11 minutes; Unabridged; (Info from Amazon/Audible)
-Feature Film or tv: No.

SERIES: No

MAIN CHARACTERS: (Not comprehensive)
Dr. James (Augustus Henry) Murray – Primary editor of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) [actual person, 2/7/1837-7/26/1915]
Jowett Murray – The Murray’s baby
Mrs. Murray – James’ wife
Hilda Murray – the Murray’s 13 year old daughter
Elsie Murray – Hilda’s younger sister
Rosfirth – Hilda’s younger sister
Lily Nicoll – Esme’s mother
Henry (Da) Nicoll – Esme’s father
Lizzy – 13 year old house maid
Esme (Essymay) Nicoll - Protagonist
Mrs. Ballard – Kitchen maid
Edith (Ditte) Thompson – contributor of words to the dictionary, serves as an (unrelated) aunt to Esme. [Actual person 1848-1929]
Mr. Mitchell – Lexicographer on the OED
Mr. Maling – Lexicographer on the OED
Mr. Balk – Lexicographer on the OED
Mr. Hart – Printer
Gareth – A compositor at the Printer
Mr. Dankworth – lexicographer working on the OED
Mabel – street vendor
Tilda – an actress
Bill – Tilda’s brother

SUMMARY/ EVALUATION:
-SELECTED. The title and book cover intrigued me.
-ABOUT: Young Esme is most content under a table in the Scriptorium as all of the lexicographers go about their work sorting, defining, and arranging words, and the quotes in which they are found, on slips of paper. When she realizes that some words are considered unworthy, or inappropriate, due to not being found in writing, or being vulgar, she’s compelled to save them like treasures. This evolves into a hobby of actively seeking out words from women and the illiterate whose vocabularies have not been committed to print.
-OVERALL OPINION: I so liked the fictionalized Edith Thompson character, Ditte, that I sought out her writing after finishing this book, and purchased an old “History of England” through Abe books. I read in a Los Angeles Public Library online interview that Pip actually considered just giving this character a pseudonym. To avoid any conflicts regarding the actual person, right up to sending it to the printers. I’m so glad she didn’t.
There’s much more then I've shared to this story and I believe it’s entered the ranks of my very favorites!

AUTHOR:
Pip Williams:
(From the Los Angeles Public Library Blog)
“Pip Williams was born in London, grew up in Sydney, and now lives in Australia’s Adelaide Hills. She is the author of One Italian Summer, a memoir of her family's travels in search of the good life, which was published in Australia to wide acclaim. Based on her original research in the Oxford English Dictionary archives, The Dictionary of Lost Words is her first novel and she recently talked about it with Daryl Maxwell for the LAPL Blog.”

NARRATOR:
Pippa Bennet-Warner - From Wikipedia:
“Philippa Elaine Fanti Bennett-Warner (born 23 July 1988) is a British actress.[1] She began her career as a child actress, playing young Nala in the original West End production of The Lion King (1999). She went on to earn WhatsOnStage and Ian Charleson Award nominations for her roles in the musical Caroline, or Change (2006) and Michael Grandage's King Lear (2010) respectively.[2]
On television, Bennett-Warner is known for starring in the Sky Atlantic crime drama Gangs of London (2020–present) and the BBC thrillers Roadkill (2020),Chloe (2022). Also participating as a boss in "Elden Ring" (2022), who is commonly known as the hardest boss of the game.

GENRE:
Historical Fiction; Biographical Fiction; Women’s Fiction

TIME FRAME:
1887-1928

LOCATION:
Oxford, England

SUBJECTS:
Lexicography, Oxford English Dictionary; Suffragettes

DEDICATION:
“For Ma and Pa”.

SAMPLE QUOTATION:
From “May 1887”
“Scriptorium. It sounds as if it might have been a grand building, where the lightest footstep would echo between marble floor and gilded dome. But it was just a shed, in the back garden of a house in Oxford.
Instead of storing shovels and rakes, the shed stored words. Every word in the English language was written on a slip of paper the size of a postcard. Volunteers posted them from all over the world, and they were kept in bundles in the hundreds of pigeon-holes that lined the shed walls. Dr. Murray was the one who named it the Scriptorium—he must have thought it an indignity for the English language to be stored in a garden shed—but everyone who worked there called it the Scrippy. Everyone but me. I liked the feel of scriptorium as it moved around my mouth and landed softly between my lips. It took me a long time to learn to say it, and when I finally did nothing else would do.
Da once helped me search the pigeon-holes for scriptorium. We found five slips with examples of how the word had been used, each quotation dating back little more than a hundred years. All of them were more or less the same, and none of them referred to a shed in the back garden of a house in Oxford. A scriptorium, the slips told me, was a writing room in a monastery.
But I understood why Dr. Murray had chosen it. He and his assistants were a little like monks, and when I was five it was easy to imagine the Dictionary as their holy book. When Dr. Murray told me it would take a lifetime to compile all the words, I wondered whose. His hair was already as grey as ash, and they were only halfway through B.”

RATING:.
5
STARTED READING – FINISHED READING
9-17-2023 to 9-22-2023… (more)

Bookbinder [of Jericho] by Pip Williams

BIBLIOGRAPHIC DETAILS:
-Print: COPYRIGHT ©: August 1, 2023; ISBN 9780593600443; PUBLISHER: Ballantine Books; PAGES: 448; UNABRIDGED (Hardcover Info from Goodreads)
-Digital: COPYRIGHT ©: July 25, 2023; ISBN: 0593600444; PUBLISHER: Ballantine Books; PAGES: 446; UNABRIDGED. (Kindle Edition Info from Amazon)
*Audio: COPYRIGHT ©: July 25, 2023; PUBLISHER: Random House Audio; DURATION: 13 hours and 37 minutes; Unabridged; (Audiobook Info from Amazon/Audible)
-Feature Film or tv: No.

SERIES: It’s not identified as such, but shares the universe of the “Dictionary of Lost Words”. One could almost say while reading that book, “meanwhile, . . .” for this one—mind you, this one expands that universe.

MAIN CHARACTERS: (Not comprehensive)
Margaret (Peggy) Jones – Protagonist – Folder at Clarendon Press
Maude Jones – Folder at Clarendon Press; Peggy’s identical twin sister – has autistic characteristics – not identified as such
Louise (Lou) – Folder at Clarendon Press
Mrs. Hogg – Manages the folding in the bindery at Clarendon Press
Mrs. Stoddard – Part of the management at Clarendon press
Mr. Hart – Controller at Clarendon Press
Tilda – Former actress; volunteer nurse; Peggy’s friend via her deceased mom
Bastiaan – Belgian soldier
Lot (sp?) – Belgian refugee
Gareth – Compositor at the Clarendon Press
Gwen Brittain – Student at Sommerville / Oxford; Peggy’s friend
Jack Rountree – Peggy and Maude’s neighbor on the canal; apprenticed compositor at Clarendon Press; Army recruit
Rosie Rountree – Jack’s mother; neighbor to Peggy and Maude
Oberon Rountree – Jack’s father
Old Mrs. Rountree – Rosie’s mother-in-law
Mr. Cannon – Press secretary at Clarendon Press

SUMMARY/ EVALUATION:
-SELECTED: The title didn’t sound all that enticing, but then neither had “Dictionary of Lost Words” as a novel. I selected it because I had so enjoyed the “Dictionary of Lost Words” that I figured this would likely also be great—it was.
-ABOUT: A young lady, Peggy, working at the Clarendon Press folding sections of books for binding alongside her somewhat mentally compromised twin sister, for whom, since their mother passed, Peggy has felt responsible for. She longs to be a writer, but not only are women discouraged from acquiring an education, so is anyone of her station. Besides, there’s Maude to consider.
Opportunities and people enter her life that enrich, yet complicate it.
-OVERALL OPINION: I liked it as well as it’s predecessor, "Dictionary of Lost Words". It’s informative as to history and heart-warming.

AUTHOR:
From Bookbrowse:
“Pip Williams was born in London, grew up in Sydney, and now lives in the Adelaide Hills of South Australia with her family and an assortment of animals. She has spent most of her working life as a social researcher, studying what keeps us well and what helps us thrive, and she is the author of One Italian Summer, a memoir of her family's travels in search of the good life, which was published in Australia to wide acclaim. Based on her original research in the Oxford English Dictionary archives, The Dictionary of Lost Words is her first novel.”

NARRATOR:
Annabelle Tudor (From Starnow)
“Melbourne based actor represented by Ian White Management. Graduate of Federation University Australia’s BA (Acting), grad. 2016. Recent credits include Puffs (original and touring Australian company), Hamlet with the Australian Shakespeare Company and As You Like It with the Melbourne Shakespeare Company.”
Upon registering at first listen that it was a different reader than “Dictionary of Lost Words” I was disappointed, but quickly got over it. This reader is every bit as good, and I will be seeking out other books she has read.

GENRE:
Historical Fiction; Biographical Fiction; Women’s Fiction

TIME FRAME:
Early 20th Century

LOCATION:
England: Jericho; Somerville; Oxford

SUBJECTS:
Bookbinding; Education; Economic classes; Oxford University; Twins; Autism; WWI; Belgium; Soldiers; Hospitals; Narrow Boats; Canal life; College Examination; Loss

DEDICATION:
“For my sister, Nicola”

SAMPLE QUOTATION:
Excerpt From “Before”
“Scraps. That’s all I got. Fragments that made no sense without the words before or the words after.
We were folding “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare” and I’d scanned the first page of the editor’s preface a hundred times. The last line on the page rang in my mind, incomplete and teasing. “I have only ventured to deviate where it seemed to me that . . . “
“Ventured to deviate”. My eye caught the phrase each time I folded a section.
“Where it seemed to me that . . .”
That what? I thought. Then I’d star on another sheet.
First fold: “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare”. Second fold: “Edited by WJ Craig.” Third fold: “ventured to” bloody “deviate.”
My hand hovered as I read that last line and tried to guess at the rest.
WJ Craig changed Shakespeare, I thought. Where it seemed to him that . . .
I grew desperate to know.
I glanced around the bindery, along the folding bench piled with quires of sheets and folded sections. I looked at Maude.
She couldn’t care less about the words on the page. I could hear her humming a little tune, each fold marking time like the second hand of a clock. Folding was her favourite job, and she could fold better than anyone, but that didn’t stop mistakes. Folding tangents, Ma used to call them. Folds of her own design and purpose. From the corner of my eye, I’d sense a change in rhythm. It was easy enough to reach over, stay her hand. She understood. She wasn’t simple, despite what people thought. And if I missed the signs? Well, a section ruined. It could happen to any of us with the slip of the bonefolder. But we’d notice. We’d put the damaged section aside. My sister never did. And so I had to.
Keep an eye.
Watch over.
Deep breath.
Dear Maude. I love you, I really do. But sometimes . . . This is how my mind ran.
Already I could see a folded section in Maude’s pile that didn’t sit square. I’d remove it later. She wouldn’t know, and neither would Mrs. Hogg. There’d be no need for tutting.
The only thing that could upset the applecart at that moment was me.
If I didn’t find out why WJ Craig had changed Shakespeare, I thought I might scream. I raised my hand.
‘Yes, Miss Jones?’
‘Lavatory, Mrs. Hogg.’
She nodded.”

RATING:.
5

STARTED READING – FINISHED READING
10-8-2023 to 10-16-2023… (more)