Life of Glass

Amalric’s tale is of a glass man with new ways of looking into the human soul. Each window into Amalric’s life is packed with vivid, colourful images which place you in the heart of the story. As I journeyed through each window, I couldn’t help but be moved by Amalric’s life to reflect on my own life. Andrea has brought Amalric’s world to life in full colour.

Life of Glass plunges the reader once again into the life and times of Amalric, a fourteenth-century artisan glazier, and the inhabitants of his village, Warren Horesby. The narrative is both captivating and immensely readable while offering highly researched insights into coloured glass window artistry and the medical knowledge of the time, set as it is against the menacingly real threat of the Black Death. The world beyond the village never seems far away, and turmoil in Church and State is engagingly depicted. Above all, the author’s deep and empathic understanding of human relationships and the frailties that affect them enhances a vivid portrayal of her characters, imbuing them with cares of faith, love, health, sustenance and superstition in a way that I find intensely moving.

In Life of Glass, Andrea weaves her way around the daily routines, habits and culture of fourteenth-century England – scarred by the legacy of the Black Death. She knows a great deal about the making of medieval stained glass and medical reactions to the Great Plague and uses this to shine a light on the gap between the past and the present. Taking history out of the archive and personifying it into her hero, master glazier Amalric Faceby, she plots a journey through the travails of pestilence-torn England set against the background of ecclesiastical politics.

Life of Glass is an evocative journey with Amalric and his faithful dogs, each one called Noah, through the trials and tribulations of the great pestilence, marauding Scots and family strife, to reach Amalric’s ultimate dream. Reading the book creates a picture of the time that is enhanced by the depths of research. It takes us back to the hardships that our ancestors went through, and you feel the same fear and discomfort that they did, lightened by humility, dedication and love.

Life of Glass is a most enjoyable and well-researched book covering contemporary issues and concerns woven into a story set in the Middle Ages. Through the lives of Amalric and his family, the author paints a vivid picture of the reality of living through a plague and dealing with bereavement, marital issues and sibling rivalry in medieval times.