#cuthbertspeople

[wcatradio]

In this episode of Author to Author, Dr. Cynthia Toolin-Wilson interviews Mark Baker on his book The Needle of Avocation (Cuthbert's People) (March 28, 2023) Hilda is the second sister, the plain one, the overlooked, the put upon. She is also the finest needlewoman in Northumbria, though she distrusts anyone who tells her so. Her mother, Edith, was born a slave and seduced and married a thegn's son, a fact which embarrasses Hilda greatly. Edith has tricked the local ealdorman into betrothing his only son and heir, Anfaeld, to Hilda, an arrangement unwelcome to everyone but Edith, and particularly to Hilda who would rather retire to a nunnery and spend her life in embroidery. It is Hilda’s right to refuse the marriage, but the future of her mother and sisters may depend on her making the match, a role that should have fallen to her enchanting older sister Elswyth, who was kidnapped by vikingar three years earlier. On the way to her wedding, Hilda meets a heartbroken king, his petulant child bride, an abbess who wrestles with a great torment, and the shy young man she is supposed to marry. Feeling herself mistreated by them all, including her prospective mother-in-law, Hilda resolves to refuse the marriage and become a nun. But first she must solve the double enigma of what really happened to Elswyth, and why Anfaeld himself has not refused the marriage. The Needle of Avocation (Cuthbert's People): Baker, G. M.: 9781778066375: Amazon.com: Books

[wcatradio]

In this episode of Author to Author, Dr. Cynthia Toolin-Wilson interviews Mark Baker on his book St. Agnes and the Selkie (March 21, 2023) “Oh, Agnes,” Eardwulf said, “you are not tired, I’m sure, for you and I are young and vigorous and we do not tire. But what am I to do? No butter for two more days! So I must let you go with Aunty. But two days hence! Ah, then I will attend you, with butter and misrule.” Mother Wynflaed of Whitby Abbey rules a joint house of monks and nuns, and many layfolk besides. Her office forbids her to have favorites, but when a young woman appears on the doorstep, soaked from the sea and too terrified to speak her name, Wynflaed comes to see her not only as a potential postulant, but as a daughter. She names her Agnes, but before Agnes can become part of the community, Wynflaed must discover her secret. Though Wynflaed finds it impossible to think ill of Agnes, Agnes herself keeps pulling down one penance after another on her head, as if trying to expiate some grave crime. As some in the abbey begin to fear her, Agnes becomes Wynflaed's obsession, upsetting the harmony of the abbey, and leading Wynflaed to question her own fitness to rule. When Eardwulf, the young king of Northumbria, comes to Wynflaed seeking counsel, he too becomes infatuated with Agnes. As Wynflaed begins to unwind Agnes' secret, she realizes that Agnes is a danger to both the abbey and the king, and plans to send her away. But Eardwulf has other ideas, and Agnes has other admirers. St. Agnes and the Selkie (Cuthbert's People): Baker, G. M.: 9781778066344: Amazon.com: Books