Prizewinning book launched at Llandaff Cathedral
On Thursday 7th November Llandaff Cathedral hosted the launch of Eleanor Williams’ new book, ‘Anna and the Angel’, a contemporary feminist adaptation of a timeless story from the Old Testament, transforming the apocryphal tale from the Book of Tobit.
Eleanor is a Reader in the Diocese of Llandaff, based in Christ Church, Roath Park. She walks with a stick, is a solicitor and lives in Cardiff.
The Book of Tobit is an apocryphal Jewish work from the 3rd or early 2nd century BCE which describes how God tests and protects the faithful, and responds to prayers. Eleanor Williams’ retelling moves the story to modern day Newport and focuses on the secret email correspondence between Edna and Anna, mothers who are both lonely in different ways.
‘Anna and the Angel’ was a Prizewinner in New Welsh Writing Awards 2022, securing the Rheidol Prize for prose with a Welsh theme or setting. In her competition adjudication Gwen Davies commented, that the book is “Sensual, ambitious, flowing and intimate... [a] warm, [diverse] exploration of mental health, dodgy money and optimism.”
Bishop Rowan Williams has said of the book, “This is an extraordinary transformation of an ancient narrative into an immediate contemporary vitality.
Written with wit, inventiveness, compassion and economy, it persuades us that the step from the chaotic world of the biblical Middle East to modern South Wales is not really all that far.”
The launch took place in the Lady Chapel, with a welcome prayer by Bishop Mary Stallard. Anna and the Angel is available from all good booksellers, but signed copies are available at the Cathedral Shop and Griffin Books in Penarth (9A Windsor Road, CF64 1JB)