SUSANNA WESLEY: A RADICAL IN THE RECTORY
By Marion Field
Highland Books. . 219 pages.
ISBN 1 897913 47 8
Marion Field is an ex-schoolteacher who has written this very readable biography, a combination of fact, fiction and diary entries. It is compelling reading and pulls no punches in its description of 17th and 18th-century domestic life.
The book takes an honest look at the characters we might be tempted to glamorise, but is perhaps a bit hard on the male sex! We have an opportunity to see through Susanna's eyes something of the struggle between the established church and the dissenters and what it costs those who stood for their principles. It was fascinating to read something of the circumstances that gave rise to Susanna's 'kitchen sermons' and challenging to see how important literacy was to folk in those days.
