Rosanna Pike brings 16th Century England gloriously to life in her debut novel A Little Tickerie, a reimagining of a true story of fraud and belief. The book is based on the true story of the ‘Holy Maid of Leominster’ – a hoax in which a woman claimed to be an angel who had appeared in the priory of a local church. But while this story is the jumping off point, Pike uses it to reflect on issues of religion, found families, intolerance and belonging.
A Little Trickerie opens with teenager Tibb Ingleby, newly orphaned and grieving. Tibb is a vagabond in a time where that status could get a person imprisoned or killed. Tibb is rescued by Ivo, a young man around her age, living on the beach. The two form a bond and Ivo brings Tibb back from the brink. This narrative is broken up by sections telling the tale of a man in prison, waiting for the King to come to pass sentence on him. The tale builds up to the story of the Holy Maid of Leominster, in ways that would be a shame to spoil.
The whole endeavour is brought to life by Tibb and her idiosyncratic narration. Tibb is a glorious creation and the real success of the novel. Tibb is naïve yet canny, loving but with the capacity to be unthinkingly or unknowingly cruel as a result, not as clever as she would like to think she is, living with trauma from her childhood, but also eternally optimistic. Tibb has an open soul, and an attitude that draws people to her, particularly outsiders. She is the heart and soul of the novel, in some ways extremely modern in her outlook but portrayed absolutely as a product of her time.
A Little Tickerie builds to something like a thriller as what starts as a plan to milk a little money out of a local community grows out of control. Pike builds that tension early and primes readers for disaster by the flash forward scenes. But she seeds the finale with landmines throughout Tibb’s picaresque adventures, bringing all of the threads together in a page-turning, heartfelt finale.
A Little Trickerie by Rosanna Pike
No Comments
Comments are closed.