LILIAS TROTTER:
Daring in the Desert
By Irene Howat
Christian Focus. 160 pages. £5.99
ISBN 978 1 781 917 770
You sometimes read or hear about people who give up something attractive and lucrative for the sake of pursuing their dream. Most wordly success is gained at some sacrificial cost.
But the stories about those who pursue treasure in heaven are the most inspiring to the Christian reader. And for this reason I in the Desert commend Daring by Irene Howat as a most encouraging read for anyone, although its intended audience, as part of the ‘Trailblazer’ series, is probably young teenagers.
Daring in the Desert is the story of Lilias Trotter, exceptionally gifted artist and intrepid missionary lady such as the late 19th-century seemed to produce. Lilias was recognised by John Ruskin, the most renowned and influential art critic of his time, as having an extraordinary talent in painting. He offered her the opportunity, under his patronage, to study and hone that talent and become potentially – no exaggeration – the world’s greatest artist.
A louder call
But Lilias loved the Lord Jesus Christ and his call was louder and more insistent. So off she went to Algiers in 1888 to live amongst Arab people with the intent of reaching them with the gospel. She founded the Algiers Mission Band and spent the rest of her life in Algeria, dying there in 1928. She took her pencils, sketchbook and paint with her and documented many of her experiences in her journal, which also included exquisite sketches and watercolours.
It is a story worth telling and a story well told. It has been told in other places but I particularly like the way this account draws on and describes Lilias’s own sketches and comments to enable the young reader to consider how it was for her. We learn not just of her background and historical context, in addition to her exploits which were incredibly courageous, but also of her attitude, which was that of Christ Jesus.
A film called Many Beautiful Things was made about Lilias Trotter in 2015. It starred Michelle Dockery (of Downton Abbey fame) as Lilias. I am not sure whether the film ever went on general release, but I looked into buying the DVD from Amazon and the cost was a prohibitive £45. The strapline of the film’s was ‘the chance to become a legend’. The film-makers would say that Lilias turned down that chance. But in doing so she has, to those who read her story, become one. So instead of seeing the film, read her story and, as the current saying is, get inspired.
