Roman Catholic women of a certain age will remember being obsessed as teenagers with Kathryn Hulme’s The Nun’s Story, book and film – “Is God calling me to be Audrey Hepburn?”
It’s still a good strong read, and even more fascinating when you know the story behind it. It is a novel, but based on the life of the author’s long-term companion, a former nun.
As the film Philomena heads into awards season, draped with nominations for Oscars and Baftas, you might think nuns are having a bad PR moment.
But then over at Team Convent, Call the Midwife is the star of BBC TV’s Sunday nights with a much more sympathetic crew.
Both these are fictionalised versions of real stories, and they are just the tip of the iceberg: there are large numbers of nuns in books – surely higher than their incidence in the real-life population. Continue reading.
Source: Guardian Books
Image: rareaudreyhepuburn