For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy On My Little Pain

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The period detail is there, but never ostentatiously, and perhaps most evident in both Julian and Kempe’s fear of being deemed heretical.

I think people who already know a lot about these women may find this more of an introduction than anything, but I also do think it did a good job of getting the story across to someone who didn't already have established knowledge.Like Julian, she begins to have religious visions, but while Julian’s faith is personal and private, Margery prays, weeps and preaches in public, drawing attention to herself and leading to accusations of heresy.

The actual encounter between the two is attested to in Kempe’s own account, written via dictation - see below. Julian of Norwich’s Revelations of Divine Love is the first book in English by a woman; The Book of Margery Kempe is the first autobiography in English by a man or a woman.

Following His command, she revealed the grace that God had infused into her soul, including compunction, contrition, sweetness, and devotion, along with compassion through holy meditation and high contemplation. Stories about girlhood, motherhood, sickness, loss, doubt, and belief; revelations more the powerful than the world is ready to hear.