Let These Things Be Written

LONGLISTED: Exeter Novel Prize

Cast out for a crime
A holy hermit his only protector

Seven-year-old Wilfrid lives a privileged life as the eldest son of the warmaster to the King of Northumbria. But his parents don’t seem to love him and his life is turned upside down when he is given away to the monks of the island monastery of Lindisfarne.

There he is taken under the wing of Cuthbert, the community’s charismatic prior, who tries to cure him of the demons that torment him. But everywhere ...