The Hawk and the Dove

The Hawk and the Dove #1

by Penelope Wilcock

The Hawk And The Dove is the opening title in this a series centred around the fictional Benedictine monastery of St Alcuin's, in Yorkshire, and set in the fourteenth century.

At the start of the first novel Father Peregrine is appointed Abbot, at the age of 45. Father Peregrine, whose name in religion is Columba, is an arrogant, impatient man, a hawk trying hard to be a dove, whose struggles to manifest the character he considers to be expected of an abbot provide much of the narrative.

Peregrine is surrounded by a company of flawed, human monks who are - for the most part - also serious about their calling, and who - again for the most part - come to love their driven and hard-driving leader. They lived six centuries ago, yet their struggles are our own-finding our niche; coping with failure; living with impossible people; and discovering that we are the impossible ones.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Christian, Christian Fiction, Historical, Medieval, Book Club

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Penelope (Pen) Wilcock is the author of over twenty books, including The Hawk & the Dove Series 1 (9 volumes), and The Hawk & the Dove Series 2.
Having got back the publishing rights to her books, she and her husband Tony Collins have now republished them under their own imprint Humilis Hastings on the Amazon publishing platform. Pen Wilcock shares the profits from all her Humilis Hastings sales with a community of Carthusian monks in Sussex where she lives.
She has been a Methodist minister and has worked as a hospice and school chaplain.

Reviews

[Joy Chalaby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oooh, I loved this fine little book! I did not expect to love it so much, but I was delighted, inspired and challenged through the stories of the lives of Father Peregrine, Brother Tom, Brother Edward, Brother Theodore, Brother Andrew, etc, and their lives, their imperfections and struggles against temptation, yet their passionate love and commitment to Christ and desire to follow Him! Looking forward to reading more in 'The Hawk and the Dove' series. So good!

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of those slow, beautiful books that makes you feel like a better person for having read it. But it sure took me a while to get into it. It somehow feels much longer than 176 pages.
I could totally see it as a Sonlight read.
I feel rather triumphant finally knocking it off my to-read list but also like I wouldn't mind purchasing it (or the remainder of the series) someday.

[Leila · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read this unusual book twice and would happily read it again. This is the first book in a series by Penelope Wilcock.

[Helena Sorensen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Moving. Tender. Beautifully written. I think I'll get the next one.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Highly recommended. My full review (shown below) is for the first three books in this series, including this one:

The Hawk and the Dove Trilogy was an interesting read for me, because I'm not Catholic, but the stories touched me because they are really intense, full of laughter and tears. It's a worthwhile read that will bring you closer to Jesus no matter your denomination.

I enjoyed reading a chapter or two of this before bed at night. It provided the perfect transition between the activities of the day and restful sleep. Packed with humor and sadness, this book alternately made me laugh, and then cry. I'm sure my family thought I was crazy because tears would stream down my face as I read some of the saddest parts - basically anything involving Father Peregrine in the third book made me sob! I was left a little unhappy with Brother Tom and Father Chad at the end - I felt like Father Peregrine shouldn't have died! There are more books in this series but I'm not that interested in Prior William - the joy of this book for me was Father Peregrine.

I really loved reading this. Sometimes it felt like I was Melissa, soaking in the tales of these monks' joys and sorrows. I was a little surprised when the third part suddenly wasn't a collection of stories Melissa's mother told her, but a seamless narration. Oh well, it just made for a lot more late night cliffhangers!

Four out of five stars for a great book! If you are curious about monasteries and what monks did all day and/or you want to grow closer to Jesus, you should read this book.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this series many years ago and the first is by far the best. Father Peregrin and all those at the monastery are portrayed with great dignity, humility, and beauty as they seek to live for love of Christ and community.

[Sylvester (Taking a break in 2023) · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5* I like so much about this book - the setting, the character building, and the writing too. I don't see the purpose of the story being told by someone outside it, though. It's distracting. To have to move back and forth in time is jarring. And although I liked the writing, not a lot happened plot-wise. (Which is fine, in the sense that this is the first of a series of books and there needs to be a certain build-up of momentum to carry that off.) I might try the second book, but I'm hoping the modernish family fade away.

[Rebekah Barkman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book transported me to another world of life within a monastery. It’s much more charming and gripping than it might sound—it is a book full of simple lessons and glimpses of Jesus.

[Pamela Shropshire · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a charming, beautiful little book of stories told by a mother to her daughters. The family consists of the mom and dad and 5 daughters, set in, I would guess, the 1950s in the northeast part of England. Melissa, the second oldest, is the narrator. Their mother is the many-greats-granddaughter of an Abbot, and stories of the Abbey have come down to them. Melissa and her sisters, but particularly Melissa, love to hear the stories of the monks.

I will definitely read more of this series!

[Chad D · Rating 4 out of 5]

What Christian fiction ought to be. Smart without ambition or pretension. Researched, but the research stays in the background. Wise and cruciform. It makes me, and others apparently, want to be better people. You meet goodness in these pages.

The frame is a bit baffling and not easy to believe--everyday stories of medieval monastic life told and retold over seven hundred years in a matrilineal tradition. Some of the vignettes are too narratively tidy, compress what would need to be a process into a few pages.

[Mandi · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first chapter is a bit tedious, but so worth getting through. Wonderfully uplifting. The sweetest stories I’ve read in a long time.

[Caleb Todd · Rating 5 out of 5]

A delight to read! Monastic drama is where it's @

[Janae Mast · Rating 3 out of 5]

I could give this four stars also, for the inspiration, wholesomeness, and good writing, and the sweet little stories contained within this small volume. Only three stars because the short story like format didn’t allow me to enter into the characters’ lives as deeply as I would have liked to. It’s written from a girl’s perspective, so you get a glimpse of her life, then each chapter switches into a short story about monks in the 1300’s that her mother had told her. I wished for either a book about the girl’s life, or a book about the monks. In such a short book, with two storylines going, I couldn’t settle into a plot and the development of characters the way I like to. But that’s strictly personal, and I would still recommend this book for its light and hope and easy writing.

[Lori Eby · Rating 4 out of 5]

What I say for this book goes for all six books in this series: I wouldn’t call them high art or stellar literature by some standards, yet they accomplish for me what the best books do: they pull me in, engage me in the characters, and change my thinking. It’s the theology that almost makes me want to reread them immediately.

They nearly earn five stars, and I almost fear it’s literary snobbery that keeps me at four stars, for although I’d say the writing hasn’t reached perfection (too saccharine? sometimes cliche? predictable? emotion leads the way?), these books lead me to see humans, vulnerability, mercy, and grief with new eyes. The insight and tenderness is tangible, and if it’s the right time for you, these stories will change your life.

Also, the first two books contain stories within a story, and I find I can easily skip the framework story and lose nothing: it’s the stories set in the monastery that are memorable.

[R · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a lovely diversion from my current dark and tragic books of history I have been reading. This book was a story within a story. I loved the fact tragedy made Father Peregrine a better man. This book beautifully demonstrates grace and forgiveness which led to peace and happiness. Each person will face different struggles and both the giving and receiving of grace and forgiveness is a gift to both the person giving and the person receiving.

[Erin Ching · Rating 5 out of 5]

This novel is a series of vignette about a group of monks, and how they learn to love and serve each other through all the challenges that come with interacting with human beings. This author really has a knack for conveying deep truths 8n simple stories. I look forward to reading more of the series.

[Kristen Yoder · Rating 5 out of 5]

A delightful tale that draws you in - the perfect Sunday afternoon read sort of book. It paints a rather romanticized view of monasteries, admittedly not entirely accurate, I'm sure. But it does show beauty in simplicity. And the characters are quite enjoyable.

[Jenny Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed getting to know the brothers and their abbot. It was such good storytelling!!!

[Lara Lleverino · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh my goodness I loved this book! For all that I don’t like organized religion there is something about abbeys and monastic life that seems idyllic.

[Dede Warner · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book. It hits a home run with an engaging plot, endearing characters, and beautiful use of words. I'd like to meet the author. What fun to find that she has written several "new to me" books in the series.

This is what Penelope wrote in her Amazon description: "My aim in writing is to make goodness attractive. I love simple human kindness and gentleness, and I am moved by human vulnerability. I am fascinated by the power that is within our grasp to lift one another up, to heal and strengthen and encourage each other - our power to bless." What's not to love about that??

She goes on, "In the novels I write, I think of the reader sitting down to enjoy a book, the door of their imagination open wide to allow the story in to influence and shape their spirit. I accept the responsibility that confers as a great privilege, and it is my intention that when you put down any book of mine at the end of reading it, you will feel hopeful, peaceful and comforted, more ready to look on your fellow human beings with compassion and see their point of view."

Wow! And that's just what she does! The characters in her books become your friends, and you are inspired.

[Doug · Rating 5 out of 5]

This for me was a wonderful story, two in one, one of the bits and pieces of a large catholic family growing up and listening to the stories of their ancestors. The other, the main story, is of those ancient ancestors, monks, and how they lived, loved and served God, however imperfectly.

A wonderful story of family, faith, service and forgiveness.

[John Damon Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

A completely charming experience plunging the reader into a realistic life yet idealistic depiction of monastic life. This collection of short stories gives the reader a glimpse of the redemptive miracle of Christ worked out in the mundane.




And I want to be a monk now (although I admit that's not really a new desire)

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 or 4 stars

What a genuinely lovely little book. I think at its heart it’s about what real love and forgiveness means and looks like in action. The importance of gentleness and humility on both our souls and the souls around us.

I didn’t know until starting the book that it was framed as a modern-day mother telling stories to her daughter (an homage to The Canterbury Tales and something else I didn’t recognize). I thought I would want to just get to the stories about the monks, but I honestly really loved the parts of this book from the perspective of this young English teenage girl. They were beautifully written, and really captured that special earnest and sometimes distressed questioning and yearning of a teenager (that perhaps never truly dissipates as you get older, just managed). And it was surprisingly really nice to read about the inner thoughts specific to a young Christian growing up in the church, as that’s not a perspective I often get in most of the books I read.

[Andrea Engle · Rating 4 out of 5]

In a busy household of seven, Melissa is the second of five girls … with their parents, they live in a small house in an English village … Mother is a riveting story-teller, and Melissa best likes her tales of a Yorkshire monastery, St. Alcuin’s, back in the early fourteenth century … these stories have been handed down for countless centuries by the women-folk of the family … not nearly so bawdy as Chaucer, but fun …

by Geoffrey Chaucer

[Chelsea Casady · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Great-uncle Edward had many tales to tell of Father Peregrine, after the terrible thing that happened to him. Uncle Edward said it crippled his body, but it set his spirit free. He said that most men would have become bitter and closed in, but Peregrine did not. He used his own weakness as a bridge to cross over to his brothers, when they too were weak. Having lost everything, he gave his weakness to God, and it became his strength.”

This was a sweet little read. Can’t wait to read more in the series

[Gina Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

AmblesideOnline year 11 free read. I simply adored this book! The narrator is telling about her life as a 15 year old and also retelling stories that her mother told her about the monks of a monastery in like the 13th or 14th century. I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 simply because one of the stories seemed completely implausible for the time period. I won’t say anything else because I don’t want to share spoilers. It’s definitely worth reading and I’m excited to start the next book!

[Rachel Walford · Rating 5 out of 5]

So beautifully written and with such counter cultural biblical truths sewn in.

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Earnest throughout; moving on occasion.

Inspired enjoyable book group discussions.

Could be a good book for a middle-school medieval unit.

[Mary Ellen Barringer · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent compilation of stories told to 15 year old Melissa by her mother. The characters in the stories lived in and around a monastery in the 14th century.

[Kristin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I greatly enjoyed this collection of shorter, slowish stories of men in a monastery in the middle ages. Human nature is the same and the way they point to Christ as they resolve some past issues is beautiful.