Book Title: Sister Rosa’s Rebellion, The Sixth Meonbridge Chronicle
Series: The Meonbridge Chronicles
Author: Carolyn Hughes
Publication Date: 4th April 2025
Publisher: Riverdown Books
Pages: 446
Genre: Historical Fiction
Any Triggers: n/a
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Book Title and Author Name:
Sister Rosa’s Rebellion
The Sixth Meonbridge Chronicle
Carolyn Hughes
Blurb:
How can you rescue what you hold most dear, when to do so you must break your vows?
1363. When Mother Angelica, the old prioress at Northwick Priory, dies, many of the nuns presume Sister Rosa – formerly Johanna de Bohun, of Meonbridge – will take her place. But Sister Evangelina, Angelica’s niece, believes the position is hers by right, and one way or another she will ensure it is.
Rosa stands aside to avoid unseemly conflict, but is devastated when she sees how the new prioress is changing Northwick: from a place of humility and peace to one of indulgence and amusement, if only for the prioress and her favoured few. Rosa is terrified her beloved priory will be brought to ruin under Evangelina’s profligate and rapacious rule, but her vows of obedience make it impossible to rebel.
Meanwhile, in Meonbridge, John atte Wode, the bailiff, is also distraught by the happenings at Northwick. After years of advising the former prioress and Rosa on the management of their estates, Evangelina dismissed him, banning him from visiting Northwick again.
Yet, only months ago, he met Anabella, a young widow who fled to Northwick to escape her in-laws’ demands and threats, but is a reluctant novice nun. The attraction between John and Anabella was immediate and he hoped to encourage her to give up the priory and become his wife. But how can he possibly do that now?
Can John rescue his beloved Anabella from a future he is certain she no longer wants? And can Rosa overcome her scruples, rebel against Evangelina’s hateful regime, and return Northwick to the haven it once was?
~~~~~
Could a story about a medieval nunnery really be “unputdownable”?
“If you’d told me a few years ago that I’d find a tale set in a fourteenth century nunnery so unputdownable, I’d never have believed you…”
So wrote a very recent reviewer of Sister Rosa’s Rebellion. And that is exactly what I had feared when I embarked upon writing it…
The central character, Sister Rosa, had an important role in the first Meonbridge Chronicle, Fortune’s Wheel, and lesser ones in the other books. But I always felt I wanted to give her her own story, to find out what happened to the unhappy girl we saw in book 1… Yet how could setting a novel almost entirely in a nunnery possibly make for an engaging story? What on earth would it be about?
In fact, I didn’t have to look far for inspiration: Medieval English Nunneries, c. 1275 to 1535, a vast tome written in the 1920s by the medieval historian, Eileen Power. I’d had the book for years, but had barely looked at it, abandoning it early on for being too long, too dense and too full of Medieval English and Latin! However, when I took the trouble to read it properly, what I learned really opened my eyes. Soon enough I understood that writing a story about a medieval nunnery could surely be not only engaging, but surprising and even exhilarating.
For what I read was that some – albeit very few – medieval nunneries weren’t at all the havens of peace and prayer I might have expected them to be… Mischief of one sort or another apparently went on in a few establishments, the sort of mischief that might make for an intriguing story.
I was particularly attracted by the concept of a rogue prioress who, for whatever reason, imposed her own inappropriate or even sinful desires upon her nunnery, a place where her word was “law”, given that the nuns’ vows meant they owed her complete obedience, regardless of the worth or wisdom of her decisions. I was fascinated by the notion that the mayhem she might cause might engender such anguish amongst the nuns that some might be willing to cast obedience aside and rise up against her.
So, how could I weave this tale of a rogue prioress and her shenanigans together with a continuation of Sister Rosa’s story?
Well, I won’t spoil the story by going into details, but, in Fortune’s Wheel, Rosa – as Johanna de Bohun, daughter of the Lord of Meonbridge – left home under a cloud of misery, and entered the priory of Northwick in order to atone for what she considered her dreadful sin. Yet, by the opening of Sister Rosa’s Rebellion, Rosa has been a nun for fifteen years. and has long ago overcome her girlish anguish. She has blossomed into an industrious, devout and very happy woman, who loves her life at Northwick.
But when the old prioress dies, another nun, Evangelina, is determined to take her place, even though Rosa is undoubtedly favoured by most of the other nuns. To ensure her own election, Evangelina threatens to expose the reason Rosa came to Northwick. Rosa stands aside from the election, terrified that her past actions – which she does still consider sinful – will be laid bare, albeit she can’t imagine how Evangelina can possibly know what happened.
However, having thus allowed Evangelina’s election, Rosa is horrified when she then sees how Evangelina – the rogue prioress – is both changing Northwick from a house of prayer to one of entertainment, and misusing the priory’s funds with reckless profligacy. Rosa surely cannot simply accept the destruction of her beloved Northwick? Yet how can she act against the prioress when her vows of obedience demand her unquestioning acceptance of the prioress’s decisions?
I very much enjoyed depicting the mayhem caused by the new prioress, and the tensions that arise between her and at least some of the other nuns. However, the central story of Sister Rosa’s Rebellion concerns Rosa’s struggle to reconcile rebellion with obedience. The struggle is of course between her and the prioress, but also very much within herself. Whether she overcomes her doubts and saves her beloved Northwick, you will of course have to discover for yourself!
But, from the reviews that Sister Rosa’s Rebellion has so far received, I do think I can say with some confidence that, yes, it’s perfectly possible for a novel about a medieval nunnery to be engaging – indeed, even “unputdownable”!
Buy Links:
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Author Bio:
CAROLYN HUGHES has lived much of her life in Hampshire. With a first degree in Classics and English, she started working life as a computer programmer, then a very new profession. But it was technical authoring that later proved her vocation, word-smithing for many different clients, including banks, an international hotel group and medical instruments manufacturers.
Although she wrote creatively on and off for most of her adult life, it was not until her children flew the nest that writing historical fiction took centre stage. But why historical fiction? Serendipity!
Seeking inspiration for what to write for her Creative Writing Masters, she discovered the handwritten draft, begun in her twenties, of a novel, set in 14th century rural England… Intrigued by the period and setting, she realised that, by writing a novel set in the period, she could learn more about the medieval past and interpret it, which seemed like a thrilling thing to do. A few days later, the first Meonbridge Chronicle, Fortune’s Wheel, was under way.
Seven published books later (with more to come), Carolyn does now think of herself as an Historical Novelist. And she wouldn’t have it any other way…
Author Links:
Website: https://carolynhughesauthor.com
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Book Bub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/carolyn-hughes
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/Carolyn-Hughes/author/B01MG5TWH1 Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/16048212.Carolyn_Hughes
When Angels Fly 