The Book of Days

by Francesca Kay

Things change; we have to recognise that; the world will not stay still. What we must hope is that the new is better and stronger than the old.

Anno Domini 1546. In a manor house in England a young woman feels the walls are closing round her, while her dying husband is obsessed by his vision of a chapel where prayers will be said for his immortal soul.

As the days go by and the chapel takes shape, the outside world starts to intrude. And as the old ways are replaced by the new, the people of the village sense a dangerous freedom.

The Book of Days is a beautifully written novel of lives lived in troubled times and the solace to be found in nature and the turning seasons.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Historical, British Literature, Medieval, Novels, Tudor Period

290 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 1, 2024

About the author

Francesca Kay’s first novel, An Equal Stillness, won the Orange Award for New Writers in 2009. She lives in Oxford with her family.

Reviews

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved reading this. I immediately want to go back and start the novel again. My 2025 reading goal was to read Catholic novels. Except for one or two exceptions, I haven't stuck to my list at all and it's been providential. The novels I've read for it that I didn't choose have been some of my favorites of the year: Never No More by Maura Laverty, The Dry Wood by Caryll Houselander, and now this novel. Never No More is a novel of ordinary days in an Irish town in the 1920s with a backdrop of great love and devotion. The Dry Wood is one of the most theologically rich novels I've ever read while still being so human. This novel is one of the best I've read at capturing the conflict of worldview in faith in a time of sea-change and the sacramentality of objects in Catholicism. (Don't be put off by those extremely boring descriptions. The novels live and breathe!)

The Book of Days was chosen as the quarterly book club read for Kristin's Hearthstone Fables Substack. Kristin is hosting a book club chat tomorrow and we get to hear from the author herself! I can't wait to let her know how moving this novel was for me and how beautifully she captures the Catholic perspective as Henry VIII is dying and the tidal wave of the English Reformation is sweeping through the country. It reminded me so much of The White Witch by Elizabeth Goudge. The White Witch is set a century or so later in the Civil War, but the conflicts are very similar.

The Book of Days is an aristocratic woman's journal over the course of just under three years (with some time hops in there). She is young and the second wife of an older man who is stricken with disease and has commissioned work in the church to commemorate his first wife and their children who died young. There is stained glass and sculpture, the carving of tombs in stone, and images for the benefit of the rural community who, for the most part, cannot read and rely on the robust Church Year to guide them through the story of Scripture and the lives of the saints. The narrator is in a precarious position in the household because she is young, a second wife, and is grieving the loss of her infant daughter. She is not sure of her place in a complex household with many members. Who is trustworthy?

The action of the novel is always concentrated in the small village in a place removed from London but the ripples of the wider world are reaching in. Henry VIII has died and his young son is on the throne. Protestantism is gaining ground and what feels like a Catholic stronghold in this small, rural place is still vulnerable.

Much of the novel is slowly paced. Slow because it echoes the gentle rhythms of the agricultural, seasonal year and the pace of ordinary human life. So little happens in a year and so much happens in a year. The author beautiful captures this tension as well: birth, death, high and holy days, simple and ordinary days. I loved reading this novel in Ordinary Time (though it would be a wonderful Advent or Lent novel too): the days seem endless but time marches on to the turn of the year on Christ the King Sunday towards Advent. This novel is poignant in many ways, and I highly recommend it.

I can feel myself slipping willingly into an English Reformation rabbit hole. Do send me recommendations for this time period. I'd love to know more.

[Melody Schwarting · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really lovely, beautifully written book about the costs of the English Reformation on a local parish. (Honestly would not want to read sequels about the worse things that happened after Edward's reign...yikes!) Every day I go to my office, which is in a building that was once the priory of the monastery, and look on the ruins of the cathedral, destroyed by John Knox and his cronies. What did the glass there look like? What saints stood in the alcoves? Before the stone was left to weather in the harsh air of the North Sea, whose faces did it show, what stories did it tell? In the new heavens and new earth, I hope to know. In the meantime, drone shows do have their uses.

The one thing lacking in The Book of Days for me was an insight into why the populace swung so suddenly with a passing preacher. Susan could have been the bridge character between the manor house and the village, and it would have made the story stronger. The people were committed to one rite at Easter, and were willing to smash it all by Johnsmas; I deserve a little more explanation than a sinners-in-the-hands itinerant preacher. If you have followed my reviews for any length of time I'm sure you can predict that I wished for better character development of Agnes. I don't know why she was written as such a nutter. There was no rhyme or reason to her behavior and it made her annoying to read about. I would have liked more insight into her character and why she dealt with her grief in such strange ways.

[Cathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

There’s a hypnotic quality in the way Alice’s life plays out day by day, governed by the rhythm of the changing seasons and the rituals of religious devotion. ‘All our days are measured in our prayers, our years in the feasts and the seasons.’

There’s a claustrophobic feeling to much of the book with the household dominated by the gradual decline of Alice’s husband, the Lord of the Manor, who is suffering from an unknown condition. The prospect of imminent death has caused him to focus on his immortal soul, employing the most highly skilled craftsmen to construct a chapel and create an elaborately carved tomb where he can be laid to rest alongside his first wife (and eventually Alice).

Alice is still grieving the loss of a daughter and is conscious that her position is precarious given her husband has a daughter by his first wife who will inherit the estate. Alice takes things into her own hands in a way that seems impossible to outside observers, opening her up to accusations of adultery and implicating a new arrival in the community. It will provide ammunition for those who support the Reformation.

This is not a book that moves at pace. It’s only in the final chapters when events in the outside world – the death of Henry VII and the accession to the throne by Edward VI – impose themselves on the lives and religious practices of the village that the pace picks up. Suddenly all the familiar things that have been central to their religious beliefs – the Latin Mass, religious images, sacred relics – are prohibited.

There is a brilliant passage in which Alice rails against the impact the changes will have on people who cannot read and who learn the Scriptures from pictures on church walls or in stained glass, and who find hope for worldly troubles in making offerings to images of saints. ‘You who take so much for granted, with your sound walls, rich food and fine jewels – and books, especially books – do you truly begrudge the people of this or any other lowly parish their little scraps of coloured glass, their painted saints, their confidence in prayer?‘ ‘

The conflicting doctrines divide families and communities, whipped up by the incendiary rhetoric of visiting preachers. For Alice and others, things will never be the same again.

The Book of Days has an authentic sense of time and place, and there are some wonderful descriptions of nature and the changing seasons. However, it was just too unevenly paced for me, with a lot of dramatic events happening in the very final part of the book. Although beautifully written and an admirable work of historical fiction, it’s not my favourite of the books on the shortlist which, on past experience, means it will probably win.

I listened to the audiobook read by Lucy Scott who captured perfectly the contemplative tone of the book.

[Dale · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully written and impressive piece of historical fiction, with an authentic sense of time and place. The pace, however, is very slow and I found it took quite a while to get into the story. The narrator’s stream of consciousness blending into dialogue, without quotation marks, was an adjustment. I’m glad I stuck with it as it was incredibly worthwhile!

[Paging Caitríona · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am very undecided on this book. It's absolutely beautifully written. I loved the stream of consciousness type of narration. But the pace is not pleasing and it's almost void of plot for 3/4 of the book. You would very much need to be in the mood for a slow meandering, lyrical book so I think if I had read this at a different time I might have enjoyed it more.

Thank you to the author and Netgalley for an ARC in return for an honest review

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

It has taken me an age to finish this book owing to its gentle nature and the slow progression of the chapel works taking place during the mid 1500s in England. I didn't want to rush things at all as I so enjoyed Alice's observations of nature, the chapel construction, the small family moments alongside societal shifts accompanying the tumultuous times during the reign of Henry VIII and beyond.

A sparklingly beautiful novel though one of two opposing halves. The first half feels like quiet contemplation whilst the later is more volatile, slightly wrong-footed me with the change in tempo. I was gripped by the transformation and stayed up late into the night to see how it would end. A worthy novel that ticks all the right boxes, for me, and left me questioning one particular point. What an intriguing little mystery.

[Jo · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's 1546 and a young wife is watching her dying elderly husband prepare for the end by having a grand tomb built in the parish church. This captivating novel is a rumination on death and change as we follow the seasons. Lovely.

[Todd Denning · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautifully written book - the narrative is slow and easy to follow, while also being engaging. Kay’s descriptive power is immaculate and transportive.

Due to the narrative style, this book needs to be read within a week - any longer and I would think it should start to lose its allure and feel slow.

Would recommend as a light, easy and thought provoking read.

[Paula · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extraordinary.

[Jo-anne Atkinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Married to a much older husband, Alice wants to have children but her husband is dying. His will stipulates that all will go to his daughter Agnes, flush with her first love, unless Alice bears a son. As her husband ails, he commissions a fine chantry chapel in the local church, his tomb is carved and a priest arrives to sing. However the locals on the estate are not happy about this and change is afoot, the old king is dead and the new one wants a different form of religious practice.
It was quite hard to get into this book, there are few names used in early chapters and the date is really given until later. Luckily I have a fair bit of knowledge and could use the hints about wider events to place this story. I'm glad I persevered as this is a wonderfully understated bit of writing. There are tumultuous events taken place as the Protestant reformation takes place and this book reflects on how it must have felt in the heart of the countryside.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

A poetic book. Not really a story so much as a diary of the days leading to tragedy. Although there is happiness as well, along the way.
I am interested in Tudor history & the reformation and that, along with the beautiful prose, is what led me to read it having read a review for it earlier this year. I am glad that I did for there was real beauty in the words on these pages.

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer · Rating 4 out of 5]

All our days are measured in our prayers, our years in the feasts and the seasons. What do those who would ban them know of the ever-turning wheel - Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter, Whitsun, spring, summer, autumn, winter, the new grain and the old leaf, the moonlight and the falling snow? Does the wind blow through palaces and throne rooms as it does through the hovels of the village, do the rains fall alike on the poor and the rich? The women of this village will never own necklaces of rubies; they will only ever have their precious rosary beads. I want to ask the kings and the princes of the Church, who have never known a day of hunger, why they should begrudge the joys of the humble, when they are so rare. A sheep roasted after harvest, a goose at Christmas, flowers strewn along the way at Corpus Christi, meet reward for faith and arduous labour. Why would those whose walls are hung with cloth of gold deny the pleasures of an image to men and women who otherwise would only see the ordinary things of everyday before their eyes? People who cannot read must learn their Scripture from their own church walls and in that way find the stable at Bethlehem and the cross at Calvary as familiar as their own homes and their fields, while never straying more than five miles from their doors. You who take so much for granted, with your sound walls, rich food and fine jewels - and books, especially books - do you truly begrudge the people of this or any other lowly parish their little scraps of coloured glass, their painted saints, their confidence in prayer? How cruel you are, if you do.

 
Shortlisted for the 2025 Winston Graham Prize for historical novels set in the UK and Ireland with a powerful sense of place.
Shortlisted for the 2025 Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction
 
And perhaps the book on a Walter Prize shortlist which has novels as far back as 400 BC and three others which are set in the second half of the 20th Century, and settings including Greece, the US, Germany and the Netherlands – which corresponds most closely to perhaps the most common temporal and geographic form of UK Historical Fiction: Tudor England.
 
In particular the novel takes place in Oxfordshire from the day after Easter Sunday in April 1546 to the day after Midsummer’s Day 154.  The years are important as they mark the end of the tumultuous reign of Henry VIII and the start of the reign of his (and Jane Seymour’s) son Edward – England’s first Protestant raised King – and the reformist Regency Council around him; the days I mention important as the feast days and seasons and the observations and rhythms of the ecclesiastical as well as folk calendars are crucial to the way the book is written (a series of short chapters progressing through this calendar), the world view of its narrator Alice and (she believes) the villagers around her husband’s manor house and under threat from the new religious prohibitions whose active enforcement steps up on Edward’s ascension (previously rural Oxfordshire distant enough from the court at London for non-blatant non-compliance to be possible).
 
Alice’s husband is dying (albeit his likely fate is unspoken and the pretense maintained that his affliction is either temporary or curable) and while the book opens with a scene of the village church being the scene of demolition and construction, it is not (as I first assumed) an literally iconoclastic project but instead his attempt (possibly in light of his impending fate) to build an impressive chapel and tomb (drawing on stonemasons, glaziers, carpenters, sculptors and more) for his first wife and four decreased children by her and eventually he and Alice.
 
Alice is childless – one of her children buried (less than a year ago) in the churchyard and still in mourning.  Her beautifully expressed writing is full of mourning and grief – with only the changing seasons and non-stopping progression of the ecclesiastical calendar (both equally beautifully captured) giving her the strength/necessity to carry on. 
 
Her step daughter Agnes, far more friendly with her pet monkey than with a stepmother she still sees as something of an usurper, is forming an unwise relationship with the friend of one of Alice’s husband’s two nephews (interestingly she perhaps more than any other character realises that many of the past certainties and prohibitions are now under question). 
 
The local priest Sir Joselin is no fan of the new ways and determined to maintain the traditions of the church.  Alice is drawn, not entirely wisely, to a new curate and music teacher and meanwhile an itinerant Lollard-style preacher stirs up the villagers to note that her husband’s new designs are not exactly in line with the religious temper of the country’s new rulers.

Despite the way in which the various tensions (familial, local and national) coincide and break in an unnecessarily birth-and-death-heavy denouement, overall this is a quiet and beautifully observed book. In fact observation in a number of senses (natural observation, observation of the religious calendar) is at its heart. 
 
Grief and mourning are also key and given an added power and poignancy by the author’s own tragic and unexpected loss of her own husband (away from home) while she was writing the novel – one of the strongest arguments in the novel by the Roman Catholic author is that the Reformation (not called such in the novel) had the effect of breaching the sense of community between the living – and she conveys this strongly in the novel (even for an extremely pro-reformation reader like me with a very different theological take on purgatory, prayers for the dead, saints etc).
 
Overall this was an impressive read and deserves its place on the shortlist.
 

This is a peaceful place, but something has been stolen from it - not solely the candles, the colours and the pictures on the walls. The saints have gone, they who were ambassadors of a power beyond all understanding, stepping stones to God. And it was here where the living and the dead met, where the living had faith that their songs would reach the ones they had lost and give them comfort. A place where the dead, although invisible and speechless, were present in prayer and imagination, a place of covenant between us. Now it is simply where the bones lie, nothing but a tomb, for the bridge of prayer has been condemned and the dead shall only be remembered in graven stone and in the short span of a heart. Safe they may be, in the gentle night, but what of us who mourn them in this silence; how shall we sing for our dead?

[Lucia Graziano · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un libro che mi ha lasciata fortemente perplessa. Non so con quale coraggio si possa pensare di proporre al pubblico generalista un libro in cui non succede assolutamente niente per le prime 200 pagine, e anche le 80 che restano non sono poi questo surplus di adrenalina. A me è piaciuto, molto, ma io non rappresento il pubblico generalista, e sono una storica della Chiesa cattolica specializzata nel folklore legato al calendario liturgico - esattamente quel tipo di persona che potrebbe apprezzare un romanzo di questo tipo. Diciamo che sarò molto sorpresa, piacevolmente sorpresa, se il libro riuscirà a sfondare.

La trama (?) prende corpo in un piccolo villaggio inglese della metà del Cinquecento. Il libro è una sorta di diario di una donna benestante e ancora giovane, il cui marito sta lentamente morendo di una dolorosa malattia. Lo scorrere del tempo viene misurato non tanto in base al ciclo delle stagioni (come dice la quarta di copertina, secondo me correndo il rischio di scontentare qualche lettore) quanto più in base alle grandi feste che costellano il calendario liturgico cattolico. Da storica della Chiesa, non posso non notare la precisione assoluta con cui l'autrice è riuscita a riproporre la pietà popolare di un tempo e, globalmente, la spiritualità cattolica di quell'epoca, così intrisa di devozione e di folklore al tempo stesso. Quando la 'fine dei tempi' arriva, per tramite della Riforma Anglicana che con furia stravolge tutto ciò su cui si è sempre basata la vita quotidiana della brava gente, tutto cambia. Ma ormai il diario della protagonista sta volgendo al termine.

Mi è piaciuto? Moltissimo: credo che sia la prima volta che mi capita di vedere, in un romanzo storico, due donne che usano i riti della notte di sant'Agnese per offendersi velatamente a vicenda (per citare un esempio tra i molti), e sono stati proprio questi dettagli di assoluta verosimiglianza storica a scaldarmi il cuore: non credo di aver mai letto un romanzo così preciso, da quel punto di vista. Però, di nuovo, mi chiedo: un pubblico generalista sarà capace di apprezzarli quanto meritano? Speriamo di sì, eh, io lo auguro moltissimo all'autrice e all'editore.


[Una copia di questo libro mi è stata omaggiata dall'editore, via NetGallery, in cambio di una recensione]

[Jennifer (JC-S) · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘To make things new, we must destroy, my lord my husband said; but the new will bring great glory.’

In 1546, in a manor house in England, the lord of the manor is dying. His second wife, Alice, is our narrator. Alice is grieving the loss of her infant daughter, Catherine, while her husband has ordered the building of a chantry chapel in the village church to enable prayers to be said for his immortal soul. He has also ordered the building of a family tomb and for stone effigies of himself and both of his wives. The creation of the new chapel destroys shrines to saints held dear by the villagers. But this new chapel is itself doomed. By 1546, Henry VIII has declared himself the head of the church in England and the reformation is underway. Chantries are banned and the ban is increasingly being enforced.

Alice’s story is told through the passage of days, marked by saints’ days (which will soon be removed from the prayer book) and the passing of seasons. There are domestic concerns as well, and Alice remarks on the changes she is seeing. The reader, with the benefit of historical knowledge, may know about the overall reformation of the church but Alice is focussed on change day by day and the increasingly rapid effects on the lives of those in the manor and village community.

This is a story about death: of individuals and of ways of life. The lord of the manor dies, as does ‘the old King’. Alice is surrounded by change, and the banning of chantries means that a grieving tradition is lost without a comforting replacement.

‘When a great tree falls, the saplings that surrounded it are shocked by new exposure to the sun. In time, with grace, they too will flourish and grow tall. But meanwhile we are like mistletoe that dies when its host is felled, or like sailors, uncaptained and navigating in the starless dark.’

It took me a little while to relax into Ms Kay’s storytelling and to appreciate the unfolding story. But once I adapted to the pace and the rhythm established, my appreciation grew.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

[Lucy Waves · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb. No notes.

Set in mid 1500s Oxfordshire, told through the diary entries of Alice, second wife of the local squire, this is so much more than just another Tudor historical novel. Deservedly shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize.

It starts slowly, but by the middle, that felt fully justified: the focus on the beauty of familiar daily, seasonal and liturgical rituals was quietly hypnotic. One moment I was wondering where it was going, the next I was immersed and no longer minded where I was headed, and could happily have rolled on like that forever. And, of course, that was when the tension started to mount by brilliantly subtle increments.

It follows Alice’s husband’s project to build a chantry onto the local church, where masses can be sung for his soul in perpetuity, plus an elaborate tomb for himself and his wife. What follows is a thoughtful, enlightening exploration of the craftsmanship involved, and how it affects the material and emotional lives of the community. It’s also one of the best renderings of how the Reformation might have felt ‘on the ground’ for ordinary people that I’ve ever read.

I’ve often wondered what it would have been like to see the church buildings and tombs we now take for granted being built, so this was like a time-travel wish come true. It also weaves a compelling narrative of what it might be like to watch your own tomb take shape, and portrays the complexity of English Christianity during the Reformation vividly and in an astonishingly readable way.

If you’re into quieter, character-driven novels that find beauty, heartbreak and drama between the lines, plus bring new light and life to events that feel set in stone, I couldn’t recommend this more highly.

This was another audio one for me and narration by Lucy Scott was spot on.

Desperate to yap about it with anyone who’s read it but don’t want to give spoilers!

[Daniel Rees · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Book of Days tells the story of Alice, through first person narrative. Alice's husband Richard is gravely ill, and being the second wife, with the first already in the ground, Alice feels isolated and alone, especially as her step-daughter Agnes is less than amiable. Richard has enlisted workmen to renovate the local church, to decorate it in his image, however, this idolatry motive behind the renovations will have repercussions for the community as the Reformation reaches the village.

The Book of Days is a dreamy almost fantasy-like tale of Tudor England during the reformation. Alice's diary entries explore the theme of change through various mediums, including the seasons, family dynamics and religion. Beautiful language is draped throughout the novel exploring the inevitability of the changing seasons as well as the lives of the characters which are upturned and shifted. The main premise explores how the characters deal with the oncoming modifications in their personal and religious lives, and questions whether anyone has the ability to combat inevitable change, or simply has to embrace what the world throws at them.

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Totally captivating! What rich, sensuous writing. I felt I was living in an English country manor house 1547, in the last vile days of the tyrant Henry VIII. But in THE BOOK OF DAYS, far away from the rumbles of London, the lord of the manor is dying and his young second wife is in mourning also for her little daughter who died in infancy. They live in the ancient ways which have not changed in centuries and are building a chantry chapel. Their concerns are familial, full of motherless daughters, nephews and unknown young men come to visit, servants, priests, personal animosities and every detail of the ever changing seasons. Then men in charge of suppressing the old religious ways of relics and stained glass and Latin prayers move out over England from the court, and the personal drama of the family and its friends and guests and servants is threatened.

I was so much in Tudor England that I did not want to return. The world the author portrays is so visceral readers may have a hard time breaking from it. Gorgeous. Great writing. Read it!

[Rose Gan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A soporific and haunting tale told through the journal entries of a young wife in mourning for her dead child whilst nursing her older husband in his final illness. He is the Lord of a fine country manor; it is his obsession to complete a new chantry for a family tomb ready for his mortal remains in the manor church.

The days pass by in their monotonous sameness for this unhappy unfulfilled young woman marked only by the seasons of farming life. Winter turns to spring and then summer - but despite the glory of nature, the family is merely marking time.

Lady Alice continues to do her duty and serve her community, unaware of the gathering storm. When it finally arrives in their village, it will change everything. For this is 1546 and the old ways are dying.

For all its gentle dreaminess, The Book of Days ultimately delivers a shocking, powerful impact, bringing a totally fresh eye to the events of the Reformation in rural communities and the shattering cataclysm of the end of an agrarian way of life that had existed for hundreds of years. Simply sublime prose.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is one that I really enjoyed but also, somehow, felt dragged on and on. I really liked the set up - the diary entries of a young Tudor-era wife, married off to an uncaring and ill older man, during the instability that followed Henry's dissolution of the monasteries and subsequent purging of churches and artefacts - and I resonated with all the characters just fine, but something about it was a little weird to me. I haven't worked out what it was wrong yet, but the first 40% of the book was a bit of a slog. Nevertheless, once it got going it proved to be an interesting little novel about both an overlooked era of English history, and a young woman in a hostile environment. I do feel like this should have been a longer book (which sounds bizarre considering I said it felt like it dragged), but once I'd got over the early hump, the story came into its own and deserved more depth.

[Patricia O'Brien · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a wonderful novel of a time in England of absolute turmoil. Alice, the narrator, is the devoted young second wife to her ailing lord and husband, Richard. Knowing he is dying, he is determined he should have an imposing tomb in the little village church and he sets about realising this project, along with a lavish reordering of the church, with Masses to be said in perpetuity for his soul.
However, Catholicism will soon seen as heresy as England experiences the tearing down of centuries of faith practice with some zealous for this wind of change while many more cower in fear of the worst.
It's a book that could be seen as slow paced, but to me this perfectly matched the setting, 1546, when life was governed by markers of the Church's great feasts and even more so by the inch-by-inch changing seasons, described so beautifully here. An excellent book.

[Annarella · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's not a book action packed and adrenaline fuelled. It's the story of a woman whose husband is dying, her life and the passing of time marked by the religious feasts.
It’s the eve of the Anglican reform and things are going to change. There’s a world that will face something totally new.
The historical part is fascinating and appreciated how the author was able to turn the way of living in XVI century into a sort of template that govern people’s life.
I loved it, loved these people and their voices from the past
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

[Tracey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have really enjoyed this book. The setting of Tudor times Anno Domini 1546 was perfect as you meet the main character, a young woman who's dying husband is obsessed by his vision of a chapel with prayers being said for his immortal soul.
This is one of those novels that is just so beautifully written at times poetic and the use of old verse and biblical writings works well into the plot .
It's a book that has a sense of calm when you're reading it, you can feel the gentleness of the main character and what she has lost, the days that she experiences and the way her world is changing in that time of Henry VIII's reign.

[Patricia Burgess · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tudor England, 1546. A woman keeps track of the days as her dying husband focuses on the chapel he is having built to his immortal soul. As the chapel takes shape, the outside world begins to intrude, old ways replaced by new, villagers sensing a new freedom. It is the time of the death of King Henry and the installation of his young son as king, England breaking away from Rome, the barring of idols, of saints, the banning of prayer and religious song. Almost poetry, the mother then widow keeps track of the changes, of her friends, of their deaths, of her heartaches. Quite beautiful and touching.

[Vanya · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was so beautiful. From the perspective of a Lady living in the countryside in the 16th century where Catholics experience persecution from the new Protestant and Anglican ideals. Enjoyed this work of historical fiction.

It was initially a bit of a slow start, each chapter is titled by days (and feastdays). Kind of slice-of-life initially but picks up when King Henry dies and King Edward ascends the throne. But beautifully written and I ultimately enjoyed it. Only downside is that non-Christians may have difficulty with some portions where the Latin prayers are not translated.

Agnes is very irritating though.

[Rebecca Molyneux · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a strange book. Very slow and not that easy to read, although there are some beautifully written snippets scattered throughout. The pacing felt off, I was quite bored in the first half and there wasn’t much of a plot. Things changed in the second half and I sort of got the point of it. I was determined to finish it as it was the only book on the Winston Graham Prize for Historical Fiction shortlist which I hadn’t read.

[Sandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

This, set in 1546 delivered the same joy in reading as did 'An Equal stillness' delivering a gently-paced, intimate focus on the impact of religion, and the enforced changes to worship wrought by the king as seen from the eyes of a woman married for financial reasons to a husband she does not love but of necessity occupying his house, along with others of his household, and then come to terms with the death of her first-born daughter. Beautifully written.

[Heather Chambers · Rating 3 out of 5]

Set in the 1500s, the Book of Days, finds a young woman feeling trapped in her home whilst her dying husband can only think of building a chapel. What is real and imagined begins to merge…

My thanks to the publisher for an advanced reader copy. All opinions are my own.

[Kronk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully written and absorbingly descriptive. Totally immersive and brings alive the fear of the times as the changes imposed by Edward VIs protectorate start to affect life in the villages of England.

[Paula · Rating 1 out of 5]

Unfortunately, this book was not what I thought it was going to be. The author was on one of the history podcasts that I listen to, and the book sounded so much better than it really was. I was very disappointed.

[Amy Dora · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful book altogether although I did find it quite laborous in parts and found at times it took a while to get to the plot however the overall plot line was good and it definitely is a story that stays with you long after