I loved this book! Truly enthralling! It painted a breath-taking image of another world. It showed the challenges of war time during the First World War, in addition to the attitudes towards women and the lower classes. I found myself spellbound and gripped by the novel, wanting to know what was going to happen to them. A beautiful read that I highly recommend.

So many interesting.themes.
Peggy and Maude are motherless twins who work together in a publishers.
They live together on a barge, Peggy keeps an eye on Maude as she has strange ways and needs looking after. The girls mother Helen was a great reader and furnished the barge with rejected copies of books, Peggy continues with this and is an avid reader..
Peggy volunteers during WWI, to read and write letters for injured soldiers, she meets a student Gwen from Somerville University who encourages her to apply there. The difference between the working class and the students is summed up with the phrase towns and gowns, but Peggy still has dreams of attending university, she also gets involved with the suffrage movement.
The horrors of war are bought home to her by her friend Tilda's work in hospitals abroad and by meeting a Belgium soldier Bastiaan who she nurses, he is disfigured by his wounds but they have a love affair.
Peggy eventually applied to university overcoming her guilt about letting others help care for Maude.
This book has many interesting, thought provoking characters.
Thank you Pip and NetGalley.

This is a book I should have read and reviewed before now - apologies to the publisher and NetGalley for my lateness, but thank you for the review copy.

This is a beautiful piece of historical fiction set in Oxford during the First World War. Peggy and Maude are twin sisters who work in the bookbindery at Oxford University Press, very much part of the 'town'. Despite this, Peggy is an avid reader, living with her sister on a barge stuffed with the bindery's rejected books, and dreams of becoming part of the 'gown' side of Oxford - a scholar at the prestigious university where woman aren't even given the degrees they earn. When war breaks out, the sisters' lives change forever as the men of the town join the military and Oxford fills with refugees from Belgium and those injured in the fighting. Peggy might finally get her chance at her dream, but at what cost?

Being an unashamed bookworm, I loved the fact that books and bookbinding underpin this whole story, Peggy and Maude's deceased mother passed the joy of books and learning on to Peggy and the descriptions of their floating home insulated with books and fragments of books was a joy. I could imagine being like Peggy, reading all the bits of the books she was meant to be binding and it feeding her curiosity. The university library also becomes important to the plot as somewhere gradually opened to Peggy; along with the fabulous librarian, this was another pleasure of the book. These lovely settings balance the more traumatic ones in the novel, notably the military hospitals packed with their sick and dying patients.

The contrast between the two sisters is also an interesting element. Peggy - our heroine and main focus - is determined, clever and spirited but held back initially by her duty to look after Maude. Her twin sister has no aspiration beyond her bindery job, paper-folding hobby and the confines of their cosy home; she also has limited language, only repeating phrases she has heard from others. However, the dynamic between the two sisters shifts as Maude's strengths become more evident - and Peggy starts to feel her own limitations.

This is - in many ways - an uplifting story, but one set against the hardships of the First World War. We aren't spared the realities of war - the horrific injuries incurred by soldiers, the traumatised refugees, the men of the bindery who never return - and it feels authentic. It isn't cosy and Peggy faces some tough choices and setbacks on her path, not least the sexism of the age.

I'd recommend this to anyone who enjoys immersive historical fiction, especially that which focuses on women's experiences of war - fans of Lissa Evans' brilliant Second World War novels would love this, I think.

I really enjoyed this book. Set from just before until after WW1, it tells the story of Peg and her twin sister Maude. Both work as bindery girls but Peg dreams of more. A great historical novel, highly recommended.

Awesome and brilliantly written.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for letting me read an advance copy of this book in exchange for my review.

After reading and loving Pip Williams' The Dictionary of Lost Words, I couldn't wait to read her next novel set in Oxford, this time in the University Press and I wasn't disappointed. I loved being back in Oxford in the early 1900's and although this is an entirely standalone story, I really enjoyed how Williams intertwined the lives of some of characters from The Dictionary of Lost Words into Peggy Jones' world. This book is set just before until just after World War One and is written from the perspective of Peggy Jones in the wake of losing her mother and caring for her twin sister Maude whilst working as a bindery girl. I was fascinated with the descriptions of the book binding process, as, like many I'm sure, I have never given much thought about the book binding process. I lost myself completely in this story and its host of characters which are so well written I could feel each of their emotions, loss, grief, hope and love. This is another utterly absorbing story from Pip Williams and I cannot wait to read what she writes next. Thanks to NetGalley and Random House, Vintage UK for a digital copy for review.

I loved "The Dictionary of Lost Words", and this standalone "companion" novel, also centred around the Oxford University Press, was equally wonderful.

As well as continuing the theme of gender inequality which underpinned the first book, this novel highlights the class / educational divide between Oxford "town" and "gown." The story is well crafted and the characterisation is beautiful.

I highly recommend this book, and hope to see more from this author soon..

The Bookbinder of Jericho is a book about Peg and her twin sister Maude who work as bindery girls in early twentieth century Oxford and live on a narrowboat.

The sisters have recently lost their mother and are reliant on each other, but the book tells the story of their growth, particularly as the first world war and subsequent Spanish flu affects their lives and loves. Peggy has ambitions to be a scholar and loves to read the books she binds, but is hampered from continuing her education by her social class and her ties to her Maude who has a learning disability. Can she overcome this to acheive her dreams?

A thoroughly enjoyable book for lovers of historical fiction, particularly readers of the author's previous novel The Dictionary of Lost Words. Some characters from TDoLW pop up in The Bookbinder of Jericho, but only incidentally, and it's not necessary to have read the previous book to get full enjoyment of this one.

The best historical fiction is transportive, immersive, rich in detail, and populated by compelling, convincing characters. The Bookbinder of Jericho has all of this and more.

Having read a heap of WWII fiction, I loved that this was set against the background of the Great War, thus offering insight into events of that time, of which I was until now ignorant. Just as interesting and instructive was the setting of the book bindery of the Oxford University Press. Williams’ detailed descriptions of the bindery and its processes were endlessly fascinating.

But it was the characters who stole my heart. 21 year-old Peggy, whose bright intelligence and love of reading sees her fostering ambitions to study at the University, and her twin: sweet, simple-minded Maude.

With the outbreak of war, the sisters’ world is turned on its head, and they both have to adjust to a new set of norms.

What follows is a wholly absorbing, multi-faceted tale of family, love, sacrifice, and loss. Williams expertly weaves in commentary on topics such as women’s rights, war and PTSD to round out the storytelling.

It’s an emotional read, complemented by meticulous research. And I loved it!

It took me a long time to get around to reading this book. Mostly, that was due to a misunderstanding on my part. I had mentally logged this as 'just another of those books set in exotic places'. Think of The Storyteller of Casablanca, the Beekeeper of Aleppo, and others in the same vein. This is the problem with receiving coverless ARC copies through NetGalley - you don't get the visual cues about the book and I've often forgotten the blurb by the time I get around to reading.

Shame on me.
Nothing to do with Jericho in Israel at all.
And even more shaming, I have no excuse for that mistake because I used to live on the Woodstock Road about half a mile north of Oxford's Jericho.
In fact, my knowledge of the area made the book all the more poignant. I knew people who lived on the canal, I cycled through Jericho most days although, somewhat shamefully, I couldn't have told you where Sommerville was.

This lovely book handles many tricky issues about life as a poor young woman before, during and after the First World War. Peggy and Maude are twins, orphaned and living on Calliope, a canal boat, they both work at the Oxford University Press, folding and collating the pages of academic books. Maude has learning difficulties and Peggy loves her but feels tied to her. As a result of meeting Gwen, a wealthy student at Sommerville, Peggy realises that she might be able to achieve things she had always thought were impossible.

We get interesting perspectives on the war. The initial welcoming of Belgians fleeing the war and seeking sanctuary, their rejection when our own 'boys' start getting killed, tales from the nurses on the front line and those of the girls back in Oxford helping the injured and damaged young men sent back from the war. Add in the drive for women to get the vote, and the low social status of women at the OUP and you've got lots to get your teeth into.

I really enjoyed it.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for my copy.

Loved the description of this book and it didn't disappoint. I felt the struggles of women to be heard and treated as equal citizens strongly and the portrayal of Maude who had learning difficulties was realistic and well written. There were quite a few themes in this book woven together well, from the printing industry, to the effect war had on women to the impact of her mother on the twin's life. Lovely writing of an interesting story.

The Bookbinder of Jericho follows the lives of Peggy, Maude and their friends during the years of the First World War. Peggy and Maude work in the bindery of the Oxford university press. Peggy has promised their now dead mother to always care for the vulnerable Maude (she has a learning disability) and isn’t capable of taking care of herself. She does work in the bindery with Peggy though, and is able to do repetitive tasks. Peggy, on the other hand, is ambitious. She has always loved reading and learning from what she reads, and she is desperate to do more with her life.

As the First World War begins, and refugees from a stricken Belgium start to arrive in Oxford, life begins to change for Peggy, and possibilities start to open up for her. She meets two people in particular: she falls in love with a wounded Belgian soldier, and she meets Gwen, a woman studying at Oxford, whilst they’re both volunteering. Life seems to be on the up for Peggy, but at the same time it becomes more complicated.

This book has a lot to say about the women’s suffrage movement, and how the war opened up more possibilities to women generally - although it certainly helped if you were in the upper classes. Maude and Peggy live on a canal boat (the Calliope), and whilst this may seem idyllic, its far from easy. It does give insight into the different ways that people lived and how people helped one another (Peggy’s boat neighbours often help out with Maude, as she can’t be left on her own).

I really liked how Peggy wasn’t prepared to give up on her dream of being accepted in the women’s college. Somerville, at Oxford. She perseveres, even if she does lose her way and has to decide what is most important to her.

This was such an enjoyable book, and I’d recommend it.

Pip Williams literary universe for the win! After reading The Dictionary of Lost Words in 2020, adoring it and picking it as my top read of the year, it was inevitable that I'd pick this one up. Actually, when I saw a new book by Pip Williams on NetGalley I immediately requested it - don't care what's it about, give it to me please!

In this book we follow Peggy and her twin sister who work as bindery girls at the bindery of Jericho. This is in Oxford at the start of World War I. I quickly realised it was set at the same place/same time as the second half of Dictionary of Lost Words. When the novel refers to Esme, my jaw dropped to the floor and it made me so excited to see the ties between both storylines.

In fact, the main character Peggy gets inspired by Esme's dictionary with women words. And as the war rages on, she develops an affinity with a Belgian soldier and starts to get more opportunities. That way a new (upper class) friend convinces her to apply to study at Oxford instead of binding books for its library and exams for its students.

I loved that it wasn't based on a fairytale of achieving more, as you see just how much work Peggy does to study for the entrance exams. It also acknowledges class differences and expectations.

Another interesting bit of the storyline is that Peggy's twin, Maude, seems to have a learning disability (it's never mentioned what it is, if I remember correctly). But it's never used in a way that is saviour-y or burden-like for Peggy. I loved just how much Maude also has an arch of growth through this novel.

The historical context in Dictionary of Lost Words was heavily researched and I enjoyed the afterword mentioning the real context the novel was based on. This is the same for this novel and in fact I learned a lot about the effects of war on Belgium and other issues that happened in camps around Europe.

I will pick up whatever Williams does next for sure! Although hopefully she does branch out from World War I...

This book has been on my NetGalley shelf for a while and I'm not sure why - perhaps the cover was too twee and whimsical for me and put me off initially. But when I got to reading the novel, I was completely blown away by it. It was the best historical novel I have read in a long time.
It's the early 20th century. Peggy and Maude are identical twins and have been working in the bindery in Jericho, Oxford, since they were twelve-year-olds. Peggy has inherited her late mother's love of books and is often in trouble at the bindery for reading the pages she binds. Some of the imperfect books and pages are stacked in shelves around the walls of the canal barge on which she lives with her sister.
Peggy has a longing to join the 'Gowns' of Somerville College but her class and lack of education constantly get in her way. She also sees Maude, whom she loves, as another reason for holding her back. She thinks that Maude (who these days would be diagnosed as on the autistic spectrum) needs her more than ever since their beloved mother died.
The story takes us through the First World War through the stories of the women and families left behind when the soldiers go off to fight. The author's accounts of women's working and living conditions, how sick people were cared for in the great flu epidemic and the reaction to Belgian refugees are clearly authoritative and well researched but never get in the way of great storytelling and writing. We root for the characters, we care for them and, through Peggy's first person narration, feel firmly a part of their world.
It's a fascinating story of how things where back then, in a shocking yet relatively recent era when women were not allowed to vote and a person was defined by their class.
I had not read the author's previous novel, The Dictionary of Lost Words, but will certainly doing so after reading this.
Thoroughly recommended. Thank you NetGalley for an advance reader copy of this book.

"Read the books, not bloody bind them."

The Bookbinder of Jericho is like the literary equivalent of a warm hug. Despite some of the themes contained within it left me feeling warm and cosy. Fans of Pip Williams previous work Lost Words will love this companion novel, The Dictionary of Lost Words.

Peg is a bookbinder living in Oxford with her sister Maude. Peg works as a bindery girl in a press opposite the prestigious Sommerville College, and she longs to pass through it's gates to study but her social class and personal circumstances hold her back. She has to content her with scraps of books that are unable to be used in the press because of some flaw. Peg takes them back to her boat Calliope, just like her deceased mother did before her.

"Scraps. That's all I got. Fragments that made no sense without the words before or the words after."

I loved Peg, she was such a simple but very real character. I felt every emotion with her; every hope, disappointment and frustration. One of her biggest frustrations is the duty she feels towards her twin sister Maude.

"She wasn't simple despite what people thought."

Peg is incredibly attentive towards her sister and acts more like a mother. Left unnattended Maude will fold the pages of the bindery books in beautiful shapes and patterns. She is unable to cook for herself. The Maude we meet is vulnerable and though Peg loves her she can't help but resent her duty. Peg struggles with her identity with and without Maude.

"Dear Maude. I love you, I really do. But sometimes...This is how my mind ran."

Peg feels lost in her role as a sister, defined only by that and unseen for who she really is. One of the few who sees her as an individual is her mother's friend Tilda. Tilda is an active campaigner for women's rights and has her own entry in the dictionary of lost words: Sisters.

"It's a word of conveniance that made me disappear, but when Tilda uses it at those meetings it felt deliberate and strong. It felt subversive and I wanted to be one of those sisters."

The Bookbinder of Jericho covers the timespan from the start to the end of the first world war and greatly illustrates the change of attitudes of the public from national pride in the soldiers to anger and sadness at the realities of war. un

During the war the bindery employed some of the Belgian refugees to assist them. The women arrived traumatised by the things they had seen and unable to contemplate the situation they found themselves in. One of them, Lotte, takes a shining to Maude and things slowly begin to change for the twins.

"I watched her watching my sister and wondered at the look on her face. A mixture of sorrow and longing. "

Most people find conversations with Maude frustrating or confusing but Lotte seems to gel with her immediately.

As the book progresses Peg allows herself to imagine a life where she doesn't need to monitor Maude every second of the day, a day where she is defined by her own worth rather than her role as a sibling.

"I want to write the books, Bastiaan. I want my ideas to be printed, I want my experience to count. I want to share something."

The Bookbinder of Jericho focuses on the women's role during the war. the largely unacknowledged role they played both at home and abroad.

The Bookbinder of Jericho is a book I won't soon forget.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

I really loved The Dictionary of Lost Words, so I was overjoyed to discover that Williams' newest novel was set in the same world of Edwardian Oxford. It's not exactly a sequel, but for anyone who did read the first novel there are some lovely Easter eggs. Once again the characters jump off the page and I really appreciated the realism of Peggy's experiences, especially when placed against characters such as Gwen. The First World War is sensitively discussed through a few different angles, and Maude's character in particular was well-drawn. A delight to read.

I received an ARC of this book via netgalley and am grateful for the opportunity. The narrative follows several lines that merge beautifully to create a whole. Peggy and Maude live together on a canal barge, twin sisters but Maude needs some level of support from Peggy whose hopes have been subsumed in that care. They work as page folders in a bookbinding shop. As they move through a life interrupted by a war their normal mode of being is altered by the absence of close friends and family and by new people in their lives. Into this the suffragist cause is seamlessly blended. At a time when life is altered beyond imagination, when women are about to achieve their aims so Peggy and Maude are about to change and develop beyond imagination.

The author has created complex characters and put them into complex lives. I loved it. The ending is perhaps not all I would have hoped for for the characters but mirrors life in the way that things don't always turn out the way you want.

I very much enjoyed this historical fiction set in Oxford during the first World War. It tells the story of twin sisters, Peggy and Maude, who are very different and have fascinating relationships, both with each other and with those around them. Beautifully imagined and with a wonderful sense of place, I thought this was a very good read.

I liked Pip Williams’ previous book so was excited to read her next book. It was very well researched and I learnt a lot about book binding and health care for soldiers during World War One. I couldn’t connect to the characters a lot in the book but I might have been the exception as there are lots of positive reviews.

I absolutely adored 'The Bookbinder of Jericho' by Pip Williams. Set in the years of the First World War, the story takes place in Oxford, and follows a young bookbinder called Peggy, who lives with her beloved twin sister who has special needs. We meet a range of characters as Peggy's story unfolds, and all were interesting. I also learned so much about how books were once made, a fascinating process that Williams weaves deftly into the narrative. Peggy''s love of the written word shines out of this book, and I was so invested in her journey. A wonderful novel, full of love and hope.