On the podcast this week, Elizabeth Fremantle is interviewed about her historical novel Disobedient, which is the choice for this month’s Church Times Book Club. She is in conversation with Sarah Meyrick.

Natalie K. Watson has written this month’s book club essay about Disobedient.

Disobedient is an enthralling historical novel that retells the turbulent life of the great Renaissance painter Artemisia Gentileschi. As a young artist in Rome in the early 17th century, Artemisia outstrips her brothers and contemporary male artists in talent. Her initial struggle as a painter in a male-dominated society is nothing compared with the dramatic turn of events that occur when a handsome male tutor is employed by her father to teach her linear perspective. Her rage against the trauma that she experiences at the hands of her tutor and the way in which law and society then fail her is expressed through her art. The story centres on her motivation for creating the brutal painting Judith Slaying Holofernes — a critical point, at which her art takes a dark turn.

Disobedient is published Penguin Books at £9.99 (Church Times Bookshop £8.99). https://chbookshop.hymnsam.co.uk/books/9781405952811/disobedient?vc=CT203

Sarah Meyrick is a novelist. Her latest novel is Joy and Felicity (Sacristy Press, 2021).

The Church Times Book Club is run in association with the Festival of Faith and Literature. https://faithandliterature.hymnsam.co.uk

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Photo: © J. P. Masclet

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