This was surprisingly good! A few pages in, I started to wonder if I’d made a mistake in choosing to read this book – the writing style was very unusual and I thought I was going to find it irritating – but once I settled into the story I fell in love with the narrator and was gripped all the way to the end.
The novel is set in the early Tudor period, during the reign of Henry VII, and begins with the death of Tibb Ingleby’s mother. Tibb has never known a home of her own; she and her mother have lived the life of vagabonds, moving from one place to another to escape the consequences of her mother’s con tricks or relationships with unsuitable men. Now, left alone in the world with her newborn baby sister to care for, Tibb sets off across the countryside with one aim in mind: to one day have her own roof over her head at last.
Tibb soon finds that making your own way in life as a young woman in 16th century England is not easy. She gets herself into trouble now and then and despite her wish to settle down in one place, she is forced to stay on the move. Along the way she meets a multitude of people including a troupe of travelling performers, a villainous farmer and even royalty. There’s also Ivo, a young man who, like herself, is an outcast who doesn’t feel he can conform to society’s expectations. She and Ivo become close friends and although most of the novel is narrated by Tibb herself, Ivo provides us with an occasional second perspective.
Tibb’s narrative style, as I’ve said, is unique and takes a while to get used to. She seems unaware of the correct words to describe things – a balding head becomes a ‘thinning-on-top-head’, being naked is ‘wearing a no-clothes outfit’, an empty room is a ‘sad nothing-in-it room’, all of which make sense but are not what other people would say. It fits with her portrayal as an illiterate, unsophisticated, naive young woman, but at the same time she’s certainly not stupid and I would have thought that with age and experience her language would have improved, yet she sounds the same at the end of the book as she does at the beginning. Still, the unusual narrative voice didn’t annoy me as much as I thought it would and I did love Tibb. One scene in the middle of the book even brought tears to my eyes, I was so emotionally invested in her story.
I had assumed Tibb was an entirely fictional character, so I was surprised to learn that she was inspired by a real-life woman known as the Holy Maid of Leominster who, like Tibb herself, engaged in fraud and ‘trickeries’ (although at least in Tibb’s case, she acted with the best of intentions). I really enjoyed this book and will look out for more by Rosanna Pike.
Thanks to Fig Tree for providing a copy of this book for review via NetGalley.
Book 40/50 for the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge 2024
She Reads Novels 
Hmm, loving the narrator is a good sign, but the choice to not have her know very common words seems a little off. It would make more sense if she used that trick for big words. I think this might bug me too much.
I think it was a case of the author trying to be clever and do something different. It was annoying but didn’t bother me as much as I thought it would.
I might put it on my list.
Sounds really interesting.
It’s very unusual!
I think the quirky language would drive me insane, but the premise sounds interesting, and I don’t think I’ve read a book set in this time period before.
My heart sank when I started to read it and saw that quirky language, but it didn’t irritate me as much as I’d expected. The very early Tudor period does tend to get ignored – definitely not a very common setting.
Someone named Susie Dent wrote this on Twitter and it reminded me of your review:
“I’m writing today about kennings in Old English. Essentially these are two word-metaphors that were used instead of concrete nouns, and they are exquisite. A ship was a ‘wave-horse’, the sea was a ‘whale-road’, the mind was a ‘thought-chamber’, and the sun was a ‘sky-candle’.”
I have never heard of this, which surprised me. Of course, the Tudors are nowhere near Old English!
My sister just got back from London and brought me the new Susanna Kearsley, Small Bomb at Dimperley, and one you recommended some time ago, Cecily. It will be like early Christmas when I see her!
That’s interesting! I thought the creative use of English in this book would irritate me, but I liked it more than I’d expected to – although I wasn’t convinced that Tibb would have continued speaking like that even after spending more time with other people who used normal language.
You have a lot to look forward to there! I thought the new Susanna Kearsley was excellent – probably my favourite of hers so far.
This definitely sounds like an interesting read, assuming you can get used to the language thing relatively quickly
Thanks for sharing this review with the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge.
I got used to the language more quickly than I’d expected – usually I would have found it very irritating!