Claire Gilbert

In 2019 Claire Gilbert was diagnosed with myeloma, an incurable cancer of the blood. The prognoses ranged from surviving only a few months to living for several decades, with no guarantee of which outcome was to be hers. It was a shocking diagnosis into uncertainty, or rather, into only one certainty: death. But Claire discovered that facing her own mortality was liberating, charting her journey in  Miles To Go before I Sleep: Letters on Hope, Death and Learning to Live (bookshop.org) 

Julian of Norwich, the 14th century mystic, was Claire’s companion and saviour through those two and a half years of gruelling cancer treatment… And now, in April 2023, comes I, Julian: The fictional autobiography of Julian of Norwich by Claire Gilbert | Hachette UK, an eloquent masterpiece of historical fiction, which tells the extraordinary story of a woman ahead of her time. In this masterful reimagining of Julian’s extroardinary life, and drawing comparisons with Maggie O'Farrell's Hamnet and Hilary Mantel's portrayal of Cromwell – I, Julian introduces us to the mother, the mystic and the radical and brings Julian’s story vividly to life for a 21st century readership.