Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell

Published: 2020, Tinder Press

Genre: Fiction

Themes: Elizabethan England, birth, death, women

My rating (out of5): ❤❤❤❤❤

When the first Queen Elizabeth ruled our land, women were the gatekeepers of life. They pushed and pulled life into the world and it fell to them to wash the dead in preparation for burial. In the years between, they did what they could to bring children to maturity and offer comfort to the old and ailing as they neared the end of their time. Women understood the fragility of life and those with a special gift for healing passed down remedies from mother to daughter.

The book title is the name of a small boy, but what we really learn about is the life of women. Women from young to old, rich to poor and no matter what their position, the greatest threat to their lives was childbirth. Nothing more natural but every delivery was a contest between life and death and only the strong would win through.

Maggie O'Farrell has captured the atmosphere of the time and women have dirty feet and hands roughened by the cold and hard work. Even women with servants must help to prepare food, boil washing and make and mend clothes for the family. Winters were cold and streets awash with mud after rain, but still the work had to be done, and seasons used to plant, harvest and store provisions to get everyone through the year.

This book was a worthy winner of the Women's Prize for Fiction, 2020 and very well imagined.

Comments

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