London: A conversation with Victoria Mackenzie

Victoria Mackenzie

Author Victoria Mackenzie will join Aidan Cottrell Boyce this Friday for an evening of conversation about literature, history, faith and identity at the London Jesuit Centre in Farm Street.

Victoria Mackenzie is a Scottish writer. She was awarded a Bridge Award for an Emerging Writer from Moniack Mhor in 2015 and a Scottish Book Trust New Writer Award in 2016. In 2017 she was shortlisted for the Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize. She has an MLitt in Creative Writing and a PhD in English Literature, both from the University of St Andrews, and she teaches creative writing.

Mackenzie's debut novel For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy On My Little Pain has received rapturous acclaim from reviewers, described as 'miraculous' in the Times and 'electrifying' in The Guardian. It tells the story of two medieval women - Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe - and their struggle with faith and family.

Margery is a pilgrim who has left her husband and son behind in order to do pilgrimage. Her profoundly personal relationship with Christ has left her vulnerable to accusations of heresy. Her meeting with Julian, an anchoress who has submitted to confinement in a cell in Norwich, will transform both women.