Member Reviews

The Bookbinder of Jericho tells the story of twins Peggy and Maude, who work in the Oxford Bindery.

It’s WW1 and with so many men away fighting for the country, the women left behind are picking up the slack and keeping the country ticking over.

Peggy and Maude live on a narrow boat and are well looked after by their neighbours, after the death of their mother 6 years earlier.

Peggy loves to read and would love to study at Oxford, but life hasn’t made that dream possible. So instead she takes home rejected books from the bindery and enjoys them, this was something her Mother did before her.

The war rages on and friends and neighbours lose loved ones and welcome home their injured.

Peggy volunteers to read to injured soldiers and refugees at the field hospital set up in the University and it is here she meets two wonderful friends who may just help her realise her dreams.

A fabulous read, so interesting and factual, my love of books has never once made me think about how books would have been bound in the days before the machinery we have now. It also gives a harrowing insight into the realities of war and the references to Spanish flu definitely felt close to home after the recent pandemic years.

Well worth a read, thanks for the opportunity to read this and I look forward to reading Pip Williams debut novel now too.

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A well written, well researched and immersive story about Peggy, an intelligent working class woman living on a narrow boat in Oxford with her twin sister Maude, during the First World War. The women work at the university press and although ordered to “bind the books, not read them”, Peggy is fascinated by the stories they hold and has amassed a collection of poorly bound books deemed unfit for resale in her narrow boat home. Her life is dominated by her work at the press, her devotion to the care of her twin sister who has a learning disability, her desire to study at the University and her love affair with a former soldier disfigured by his war injuries. There is a lot of depth to this story, and the themes cover class prejudice, the fight for female suffrage and the limited educational and professional opportunities for women during this time.

With thanks to the author, the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review an advance copy.

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Loved this book and the main characters of Peggy & Maude. Exceptionally well written with a deep understanding of the history & deprivation of the times. Now I need to go and read The Dictionary of Lost Words & eagerly await more from this talented author.

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Beautifully written and atmospheric, this is the story of sisters Peggy and Maude who from a young age have worked at a bookbinders. Their work is repetitive, folding, pressing the creases in the paper. They read snippets of the books they're working on and even their home is full of folded paper shapes.

Set at the outbreak of WWI, Peggy volunteers her time to read and write letters for wounded soldiers and when she meets a Belgian soldier who is facially disfigured she falls in love, but Maude would be alone in the world without her.

This is a lovely story, easy to read in one sitting.

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Books about books are always a great set up to my mind, and this does not disappoint.

Set in the Oxford University Press bookbinding section (I've learned so much about this craft!), this is the story of Peggy and her sister Maude, who live on a house boat in Oxford, and work in the girls section of the bindery. This is the age where women's and men's roles are clearly laid out by society, yet the war is changing expectations. Can Peggy push the boundaries and seek to step over the 'town to gown' line, and embark on a different relationship with the words she is surrounded by?

The characters in this story are beautifully crafted and you will care for some deeply. Really enjoyed this read.

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Pip William’s debut novel, ‘The Dictionary of Lost Words’ has stayed with me since I read it and remains one of the stand out books for me over the past few years. Therefore I started this book with a good deal of trepidation of whether it would live up to a similar standard. I shouldn’t have feared as William’s manages once more to create a powerful novel that had me laugh, cry, empathise and learn too of the history of women of whom we are never formally taught.

‘The Bookbinder of Jericho’ tells the story of twins, Peggy and Maude. Both women have occupations of book binding in Oxford while living in a canal barge. Peggy, who is the main protagonist dreams of stepping over from the ‘town’ to the ‘gown’ and becoming a student but due to social class, conditioning and lack of formal education knows this is simply a dream. Maude (my favourite character) experiences the world in a more black and white manner and is written very much as being autistic (as an autistic reader I really appreciated this and felt Williams did an excellent job especially with her inclusion of echolalia which she showed is not simply meaningless). As the First World War enters their lives on the home front both discover that life can change in surprising ways both for good and for bad and just how often the circumstances we find ourselves in are what really influence our lives. Like the books they bind so much of our individual lives are bound up by the people and things behind the scenes that are never seen. Williams shines a light on these aspects.

I really could write so much about this book as I absolutely loved it. However what really stood out for me alongside the character development was the deeper themes that ran alongside the plot. Williams is clearly a great observer of people and of life. She shows that life is not a fairy tale but is gritty, harsh, filled with hopes and dreams, despair and trauma and that all of these things matter and accumulate to create the person.

This really was such a fantastic book and one that I know I will return to over and over again.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

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Peggy & Maude are twins. They live on an old narrow boat called 'Calliope' They both work at Clarendon Press in the bookbinding department. Peggy longs to be reading the books rather than making them. Their late mother had also worked there & their home is full of books & bits of books that were substandard. Although her mother never asked it of her, Peggy feels responsible for her sister because Maude is different. She lives in her own little world, content folding paper, be it at the bindery or at home. She doesn't talk much, often repeating a phrase here & there (& often very aptly) When war breaks out their world begins to change. Some Belgian refugees join the bindery bringing some of the horrors close to home. Keen to widen her horizons Peggy volunteers to read & write letters for the wounded which introduces her to Gwen- a young woman who is a student at the University. Gwen does not seem to appreciate that she has the chance to do something Peggy has always wanted. The twins vibrant aunt Tilda adds much to their lives & when she volunteers as a nurse in France the war comes home in a personal way. But the war opens many doors for women eventually.

I loved The Dictionary of Lost Words & wondered if another Pip Williams book could capture my heart & imagination. From the start I knew that it could. Full of a great cast of characters, fascinating descriptions of the art of bookbinding & set in one of the most turbulent times for women this was a joy from start to finish. Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for letting me loose in this world.

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If you read the dictionary of lost words, this is a must. It follows the same sort of theme. However this book leads you to discover the interesting world of the women left behind in the war and their development through work into 'bookbinding' So well written and some characters continue from the first book - but not all.
Really interesting book.

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Peg and Maude are identical twins, except that Peg dreams of studying English at Oxford University and Maude struggles to form an independent sentence.
Both girls work for the Oxford Press in the bindery. There they fold the pages of the books prior to them being sewn and bound.
The story starts just before WW1 when with so many men eventually leave their jobs to enlist women are expected to step into their places.
Peg wants to do something but can't leave Maude alone for long. She volunteers to read to wounded soldiers where she meets Bastiaan; a Belgian officer devastatingly injured and at first so heavily bandaged that Peg has no idea what he looks like. Before the bandages are removed and the extent of the damage to his face revealed Peg is in love.
But this is not just a story about their love; it is about Peg's love for knowledge, for words and for education. There are so many wonderful characters in the book; Rosie the boatswoman who lives on the narrow boat next to Peg and Maude. Gwen who has all the advantages Peg lacks and is studying at Somerville college. Lotte, a Belgian refugee who cones to work at the Press and takes Maude under her wing.
The detail about the Oxford Press is fascinating and something I knew nothing about.
A wonderful book full of history, warmth and wonderful people.

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Set in the same time period as the authors previous novel - the Dictionary of List Words - I was excited to be given the opportunity to read an advance copy of this book. I enjoyed learning more about the process of publishing books in the early years of the twentieth century. However , sadly I didn’t find this as compelling a read as the other story.

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An absolutely riveting read ,very poignant in it's awfulness of War & it's effects not only on those who are fighting but those at home awaiting news about their loved ones , & even worse for those who have been sent to a strange land as refugees ,& mankind still hasn't learnt the futility of War & all that follows in it's wake ,& just like the epidemic of Spanish Influenza that actually killed more than the War itself , we have had a Pandemic & also have a terrible war going on in Ukraine.
Also in praise of all those Women who have & still fight for proper recognition again a battle still to be won . I have laughed at some parts & cried in many others but I would highly recommend this book #NetGalley, #GoodReads, #Amazon.co.uk, #FB, #Instagram, #<img src="https://www.netgalley.com/badge/8a5b541512e66ae64954bdaab137035a5b2a89d2" width="80" height="80" alt="200 Book Reviews" title="200 Book Reviews"/>, #<img src="https://www.netgalley.com/badge/ef856e6ce35e6d2d729539aa1808a5fb4326a415" width="80" height="80" alt="Reviews Published" title="Reviews Published"/>, #<img src="https://www.netgalley.com/badge/aa60c7e77cc330186f26ea1f647542df8af8326a" width="80" height="80" alt="Professional Reader" title="Professional Reader"/>

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Having been almost evangelical about “The Dictionary of Lost Words”, I was equally excited and nervous to venture back into the world of the women in Oxford at the turn of the last century. However, I needn’t have worried.

While this isn’t a direct sequel to the previous book – the main characters of that novel are mentioned but a few times – we pick up the story of one of the women working in the bindery of the University Press that was present in the previous book. We meet Peggy in 1914, as the men of Jericho prepare for war and women are increasingly relied upon to fulfil what have previously been considered “male roles”.

Peggy is no stranger to responsibility as she feels she must protect her twin sister Maude, who is vulnerable in ways that Peggy is not, following the death of their mother. Peggy is also familiar with being expected to conform to set gender and class roles and responsibilities, which is what has kept her in the bindery folding pages and taking the odd section or unsellable book home to read, when every fibre of her being longs to cross over the street to join the female scholars at Somerville College. As Belgian refugees start to arrive in Oxford, however, Peggy begins to see that the world isn’t as black and white as it once appeared, and begins to see that life could start to offer more opportunities to those who grasp them, although this is easier said than done.

As with Pip William’s earlier work, every paragraph in this book is exquisite. The characters are deep, and flawed, and truthful, and the relationships between them sing off the page. As with the previous title, I was thoroughly engrossed in the story while also learning so much about the history and politics of the time, which is not an easy balance to achieve. The scenes the author describes allows every detail to come to life with a clarity and intent that I’ve rarely encountered in another series of books, and I can’t recommend this title highly enough.

My thanks to the author, NetGalley, and the publisher for the arc to review.

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I sometimes find historical fiction a little tricky to get into but this was an immediate immersive situation. I was sucked in immediately and loved every second.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book.

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Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this eARC.

I adored this book! Really well written, great characters and character development and good pacing. Would absolutely recommend this for any historical fiction fans and will be purchasing a copy for my bookshelf.

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This book is about Peggy Jones, her sisters Maud and her friends, who live in Oxford during the First World War. Peggy and her sister sew books together, but Peggy would love to be a scholar which is unheard of for people like her.
The book is written through Peggy’s eyes. I was very much looking forward to reading this book but found it tough to get through as I did not find it very engaging. It is interesting to see life through the eyes of a person living through those tough times.

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Peggy and Maud are twins, living together in Oxford on an old and shabby canal boat. Their father they never met, and their mother passed away when the girls were only seventeen. But ever since they were twelve years old, the sisters worked together binding books at the Oxford University Press. They are very good at it but they barely make enough money to survive, even thought they get help from their friendly neighbours, and their ‘aunt’ Tilda. Later in the story we learn about the connection between Tilda and the girls’ mother. Peggy and Maud may look the same, they have very different personalities. Peggy longs to go to college – by that time practically impossible for a girl of her status – but Maud sees the world a little different and Peggy feels that she must care for her.
Then, its 1914 and the world is afire with WWI. Oxford is swamped with Belgian refugees and before they know it, the safe world Peggy and Maud are used to, where everybody has their place, is no longer a reality. Peggy’s aspirations get a boost when she meets Gwen, a ‘rich’ girl that is allowed to study, but will she see her dreams come true?
This was such a great story, with lots of facts intertwined with the imaginary characters of Peggy and Maud – and later, Peggy’s struggle to find her way in a world where women had to choose between love and education. You can hardly imagine it now, but on the other hand, there are still lots of places in the world where this is still true. Halfway the book I thought that it is actually very strange to read so much about how books were once printed and bound on such a modern device as a tablet… especially because I will never be able to read small print anymore. Some parts made me laugh, some parts brought tears to my eyes.
I loved The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams, but she’s really outdone herself in this story.
Thanks to Netgalley and Random House for this review copy.

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I had not read Williams's previous book, The Dictionary of Lost Words, before this (and it's not requited to enjoy this one), but now I will be as there is a hinted-at overlap in characters I loved spending time with! This book was so, so evocative, as well as educational. Don't miss the Author's Note at the back – it provides context for how the author first became interested in the unsung sacrifices of the girls who worked at OUP during the war. I initially picked up this book because I live on a canal boat, and so do Peg and Maude – but the resonances went far beyond that, as I've also spent time in Jericho, know Walton Street well, and I'm a stickler for Hart's Rules. Suffice to say I felt like I was back at Oxford again, and want to revisit now with this historical overlay on those places i thought I knew well.

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Even though a little slow moving at first, this book was a pleasure to read.

Once again, Pip Williams blends history - I live for her author's note - with imagination, weaving a captivating, poignant tale of desire, ambition, duty, grief and love in The Bookbinder of Jericho.

Set within the bindery of the Oxford University Clarendon Press, we are introduced to Peggy, who, wielding her late mother’s bonefolder, gathers and folds the pages of books while she dreams of studying at University, but as a Town, with the added responsibility of her twin sister,  such ambition has always seemed impossible.

The Bookbinder of Jericho is well grounded in historical fact, exploring women's suffrage, the gatekeeping of education and knowledge and the horrors of war. It's also a thought provoking and emotional story that I won’t hesitate to recommend.

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I wanted to read this book because I loved Pip Williams' previous book, and I was not disappointed. This was set during the first World War in Oxford, where Peggy works as a Book Binder alongside her twin sister Maude. Peggy is determined to study at the University, and this book covers her struggles to get there while looking after Maude who has learning difficulties. The female characters in this book are so strong and the while story is so emotional. The book goes into depth about the roles of women during the war and is beautifully written, it also brings in characters from the writer's previous work. I definitely recommend this read

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I was sent a copy of The Bookbinder of Jericho by Pip Williams to read and review by NetGalley. As with all the other books I’ve read by this author I absolutely adored this novel! The writing is perfect and the characters are totally believable, as is the sense of place. The author manages to weave her story through the real-life events of World War I and the processes of the Oxford University Press, beautifully researched and, did I say, beautifully written?! It is told in the first person, which I love, by protagonist Peggy, and is full of books and words.... what else could an avid reader wish for?! Definitely a perfect read for me!

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