The Bookbinders – Pip Williams

This is a fine example of historical fiction by the author of The Dictionary Of Lost Words.  Once again, the setting is Oxford, but the time is 1914-18. Peggy and Maude are 21-year-old twin sisters working as bookbinders at the Clarendon Press. Peggy is driven by her love of books and a desire to study literature at university; Maude is a special extraordinary woman, vulnerable with an honest simplicity. Their lives are disrupted by the war and an influx of injured Belgian soldiers, and then by the influenza epidemic. This is a story about the love of books, about knowledge that is withheld if you are female, and the formidable barriers experienced by women. Highly recommended.