I adored this book! The Bookbinder is a fascinating look at life during WWI in Oxford, England for two sisters, Peggy and Maud. They work as bookbinders with the Oxford University Press but Peggy dreams of a bigger life. One where she walks across the street and becomes a student in the women’s college at Oxford. But as a “town” instead of a “gown” and with her responsibilities to her slower sister, Peggy knows her dreams will never come true.

With the advent of WWI, however, women’s fortunes change as they take on roles left open by the men who become soldiers. Peggy finds an escape as a volunteer to the Belgian refugees brought to the town, finding companionship and a love that threatens to overtake her dreams.

I loved all of the details of the book binding process included by the author and felt like I was in the factory myself! Peggy’s frustration and torn loyalties were easy to understand, and I was rooting for her the whole time. The glimpses we got of the battlefield through letters was poignant and heartfelt, just enough so we knew what was happening while keeping the focus on the homefront.

My favorite characters were Peggy’s society friend, Gwen, and the Belgian soldier she befriends, Baastian. Both added levity and emotion to Peggy’s often depressed outlook. The book surprised me in many ways and taught me so much about this time period. I just loved it!

I recently read the author’s first book, The Dictionary of Lost Words, and loved the “Easter eggs” that referred to characters in that book. You don’t have to have read the first book to read this one but do know that this book has a few spoilers for the first book. Both are excellent reads!

Peggy and Maude are identical twins, born to an unwed mother who works at the Oxford University Press as a bookbinder to support her small family. The time is just before England joins the war effort and goes through the Spanish flu of 1917 and ends right after Armistice.

The girls are hired at the Press as teenagers and become self-supporting when their 36-year-old mother dies. The primary job for the bookbinders is folding pages to assemble into books. Maude isn’t truly slow but she is special needs, and she finds comfort in the repetitive folding. Peggy wants more and brings home damaged pages and books in her hunger for education. One friend referred to their boat as “a bloody floating library.” Peggy is the narrator.

Ms Hogg is the supervisor who accepted the girls as employees but insists on calling both the twins Ms Jones, an insult to their illegitimacy. Home to the girls is a narrow boat on one of the canals, berthed next to another narrow boat and between the two boats became one family.

What makes this book so engaging are the rich characters, their relationship to each other and responses to what happens in a war. Their mother’s friend Tilda volunteers as a nurse on the front and some of the story is told in her letters to Maude.

I watched a documentary series about narrow boats done by the theater couple Timothy West and Prunella Scales, which I think gave me an advantage in imagining their living circumstances. This was a thoroughly engaging read. Well done.

The Bookbinder is a wonderful follow-up to The Dictionary of Lost Words. While I do not think it is imperative that you read The Dictionary of Lost Words, it definitely enhanced my experience. The Bookbinder explores women’s lives during WWI as they navigate their roles, family obligation, class, and gender impact their lives and their dreams.

Peggy and Maude are identical twin sisters in this masterpiece of historical fiction centered around a bookbindery in 1914 Britain. This is a beautifully written poignant and powerful journey through war and disease, family, heartbreak, loss, love, and sacrifice. It's an education in the history of books and knowledge, and who had access to education a century ago. It's a stark reminder of the things we have fought for, and the prices that have been paid.

❤️ Maude. ❤️ Bastiaan. ❤️ Tilda. 💔 Lotte.

❤️❤️ This book. ❤️❤️

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advanced digital reader's copy (ARC) in exchange for an honest review!

THE BOOKBINDER by Pip Williams is another lovely historical fiction based on the women's roles, not just in book production, but in WWI.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

This a quiet story that gives voice to the unsung heroes in history.

Peggy is a young woman with a twin, Maude, who needs a bit of assistance navigating life. Orphaned by their parents, Peggy has worked hard to continue keeping their longboat home running. The girls have followed family tradition by working in the Bindery, though Peggy has aspirations for more with Oxford's Somerville college in view. When the war hits and class systems as well as gender roles are suspended for a time, Peg senses her chance, but feels the pull to keep caring for her sister.

This was a very lovely historical fiction that shed more light on a time that I am seeing a bit more recently. Perhaps it's the connection with another pandemic and shifting notions about class and cultural boundaries; there are a lot of relevant topics here. With a bit of a love, friendship, and family relationships, this is a very real, and at times humorous look at what being a working woman might have looked like in the early 1900's.

I really enjoyed this story, and I wish I had carved out more time to read this faster. It was my bedtime read, which was a wonderful way to wind down, and I was excited to pick it up, but it seemed to wind me down a bit too quickly! I was absolutely invested in Peggy and Maude's sisterhood.

Thank you @NetGalley and Ballantine Books @randomhouse for sharing this digital ARC with me. This was published July 25th, and historical fiction fans should be grabbing this gem.

I loved how the arc included a photo of the real Bindery workers, more women, whose names have mostly been relegated to a single mention in this type of photo form, if at all.

WOW. I can't stop thinking about Peggy, Maude, Baastian, and the Oxford Press. What a gorgeous story about a tiny slice of time and place. I felt immersed in Oxford and Jericho. I can't wait to recommend this to everyone.

Historical fiction about a young woman Peggy and her twin sister Maude who work as bookbinders on the "women's side" of the Oxford University Press. But Peggy longs to read the books, not bind them. She has a collection of "damaged" books in her home that she reads and dreams of attending Oxford as a student. The story takes place during WW I and weaves in the horrors of injuries, loss, and illness, as well as women's rights and the suffrage movement. Such a great story and well-drawn characters.

As a huge fan of The Dictionary of Lost Words, I was eager to read The Bookbinder. Though there are connections between the two books, I was happy to see that this could be read in its own right rather than reading as a sequel. I very much appreciated the themes of this book - feminism and the constraints placed on women during this historical period, a view of the home front during WWI that highlighted women working and refugees, the powerful (and perhaps constraining) connections between sisters. I found the pace a bit slow at times, and though it's perhaps not fair to compare the two books, this one didn't have the urgency or hold my interest as much as Lost Words. However, I really appreciated the relationship between Peggy and Maude, especially the way it changed over the course of the book. Peggy's desires (and struggles) to bridge the town vs. gown division were also a highlight for me. All in all, very solid WWI historical fiction that takes on a slice of women's experience not often seen.

Pip Williams is a brilliant writer and researcher. In The Bookbinder, readers are introduced to the women of the Oxford University Press and learn about how books really get made, how war ravaged land and people, and how determination can change a person’s life -when they are willing to make hard and necessary choices. Twins, Peggy and Maude, don’t know a life without one another. Further bonded by the loss of their mother, Peggy assumes the role of caretaker in their relationship, believing that Maude cannot life a safe and happy life without her constant presence. What Peggy doesn’t realize is that these women, who live on a narrow boat in the canals, have a community that loves and supports her, and Maude especially. Peggy dreams of an education, of a life of writing, but it isn’t until she meets Gwen, a student at Oxford’s Somerville college, that the life she wants becomes more than a far-off dream. Filled with characters you’ll love, information that will set your curiosity on fire, and reminders of the real consequences of war, The Bookbinder is a story you won’t be able to put down.

The Bookbinder is a companion novel to The Dictionary of Lost Words. I recommend both of these!

This story is set at the Oxford Press and focuses on the women who bind books by hand / specifically on Peggy and Maude - twin sisters who lost their mother while young teens. One sister seems to be on the spectrum and this shapes their lives as one sister feels she needs to give up her dreams of higher education in order to care for her sister.

It’s also about the care of wounded soldiers and expectations of women to volunteer. This is a slow burn-character focused story done with beautiful prose and the best cast of side characters I’ve read in a while. Each one was well developed and pierced my heart. Themes of women’s rights, privilege, grief, love, responsibility and resilience all factor in. This is a closer look at the effects of war on the women left behind. I loved it!

Thank you to @netgalley and @randomhouse Ballantine for the ARC to read and review.

In The Bookbinder, Peggy cares for her twin sister, works long hours as a bookbinder, is a book and words lover, and dreams of academics.

Twin sisters, Peggy and Maude, work at the bookbindery in Oxford (England). Peggy is ambitious and intelligent and has to be reminded that her job is to bind books and not read them. She envies the women across the street at Sommerville College. Peggy also watches over her sister Maude who is neurodiverse, gifted in unique ways, and enjoys the repetition of the binding process. WWI interrupts their lives and Peggy volunteers at a hospital for injured refugees from Belgium. As she nurses a certain Belgian soldier, her academic goals become more complicated.

It’s interesting to gain a glimpse into the labor-intensive and exacting work of bookbinding in the early 1900s. The author gives us detailed and vivid descriptions of the process, the bindery, the people, and the time period.

She’d Rather Be Reading. Can you imagine working with books and words all day, every day and not be able to read them if you’re a book lover? As she folds and gathers, Peggy picks out individual vocabulary words to memorize and learn. She also reads one sentence at a time as she folds and gathers certain sections. If she’s lucky, a book or a portion of it may be damaged in the process and then she sneaks them home. Her small houseboat is packed wall-to-wall with stacks and stacks of printed material.

Peggy is an ambitious and driven person and she wants to attend college more than anything. Although she was born into the working class and doesn’t have the academic background or connections required, she persists in her dream of college. Through innovative, supportive, helpful, and encouraging friends, she finally gets a chance. It will require a tremendous amount of work, persistence, and sacrifice to pass the entrance exams. We cheer for Peggy throughout the story as she chases her dream. We believe in her right to education, and anyone that has taken a difficult entrance exam will relate!

This compelling story is multilayered and rich in themes that includes topics such as WWI, Belgian refugees, war injuries, the Spanish Flu, loss and grief, friendship, sister bonds, classism, access to education, sacrifice, following a dream, ambition, neurodiversity, and a side of romance.

Content Consideration: war injuries, illness, loss, and grief

I recommend The Bookbinder for fans of books about books and historical fiction (WWI), for readers who appreciate stories of inspirational and ambitious women, and for book clubs. Those who have read The Dictionary of Lost Words might enjoy this new release by Pip Williams set in the same world.

Thanks #NetGalley @RandomHouse / Ballentine for a complimentary e ARC of #TheBookbinder upon my request. All opinions are my own.

For more reviews visit my blog www.ReadingLadies.com where this review was first published.

The Bookbinder is a beautifully written story set during World War 1. The binding of the books was very detailed and described like a dance. Peggy and Maude are twins living on their own in a time when it was rare for women to be acknowledged as scholars. They work as bookbinders. Peggy is hungry for more in her life, and feels as if her sister is holding her back. This is a heartwarming, and at times, heartbreaking story of love, loss, and perseverance. It is a story of endings as well as new beginnings.

I am so grateful to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me a copy for my honest review.

This book delighted me. It had all the elements I love: historical fiction, a great setting, a feminist POV, and strong characters. In this case, the book is set in Oxford, UK, right as WW1 is teeing up, and we follow our protagonist Peggy and her twin sister Maude who are bookbinders in the main publisher in Oxford. They are stuck on the women's side of the factory and are meant to fold the printed pages, which will become the book's pages. Peggy is inquisitive and intelligent, curious about every word on every page she folds. Her mother has died early, and Peggy is responsible for her sister, who is less independent and capable than she is due to being mentally less developed. It's a burden that limits her life choices, as much as the limitations put on her for being a woman.

I loved how the author weaves in themes of women's liberation, the suffragette movement, the war's toll on the town, and the class divide (Towns and Gowns) in Oxford.

I loved the slow and thoughtful pace, but readers who like a faster clip to their reads may not enjoy this one.

I want to thank the publisher for access to an advanced readers' copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Bookbinder, from Pip Williams, is actually a companion piece to her earlier book, The Dictionary of Lost Words, both works of historical fiction based on much factual background. It is not necessary to have read the earlier book to enjoy this new one. Set in Oxford, England just as WWI is beginning, we experience life primarily through Peggy and Maude, twin sisters who work at the Oxford Press, on the “women’s” side, folding and, in Peggy’s case, assisting with binding. They have been working there since they were twelve, now are seventeen, and Peggy finds herself yearning for more from life. Maude has limited expectations and also some type of apparent cognitive impairment that also has served to hold Peggy in place out of responsibility.

Also occurring is women’s fight for the vote…women with property, however. And local men and boys are soon enlisting and traveling to the continent to fight. Refugees bring the reality of the war home to everyone, (including the book’s reader.) Now there are more things than work for Peggy to focus on.

Such a good book! It offers a look at the history of the time with insights into women’s thoughts, class issues, pictures of a early 20th century workplace and narrowboat living on the canals along with the realities of war, young love. I do recommend this book to those who enjoy historical fiction.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an opportunity to read this book. This review is my own.

The Bookbinder is a beautiful story of a young woman in WWI Oxford. Peggy works as a “bindery girl” for Oxford University Press: folding, gathering, and sewing pages of books that she would rather be reading. I loved the setting and the wonderful descriptions of the Press, the books they published, and how the books were physically produced. I also loved the descriptions of life on the narrow boat where Peggy lives with her sister Maude. The story focuses on how Peggy’s life changes due to the war—meeting Belgian refugees who arrive in Oxford, volunteering in the hospitals, and the changing role of women in this period—and the changes she strives for personally, in her attempts to move from “town” to “gown” and gain a place at the university. I did find the pace of the book slow and it took me longer to read it than anticipated, but it is a lovely story and I enjoyed reflecting on the characters and events after I finished it. Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the opportunity to review this book.

Peggy is a young woman who works at the Oxford book bindery where she is allowed to touch, fold and stitch the pages of the great works she is not allowed to read. She lives in Jericho on a narrow boat along with Maude her neurodivergent twin sister. Peg dreams of attending Somerville’s College, one of Oxford’s women’s colleges, until her desires are sidelined when her mother’s deathbed wish burdens her with the promise to care for her sister. It is the dawn of the Great War, men are enlisting and women are stepping into jobs previous held by their men. We meet a number of these women as they tend the wounded in the local makeshift hospital and on the battlefield. Peg volunteers to read to patients where she meets a soldier seriously wounded in the massacre of Louvain. We witness Peg grow as a young woman wrestling with the restrictions placed on her due to her sex, class and family obligations.

I enjoyed Williams’ The Dictionary of Lost Words and was eager to read more of her work. I was not disappointed! It was a surprise delight to meet some of characters from TDOLW again. The Bookbinder was a satisfying historical fiction with beautifully developed imperfect characters and deftly integrated historical events - WWI, the influx of refugees into England, the Spanish Influenza, class inequities and Women’s suffrage. Bonus, my nerdy self loved learning about the craft of book binding in the early 20th century.


Many thanks to the author @PipWilliams_author, @RandomHouse, Ballatine Books and @NetGalley for the gift of this digital arc which was my pleasure to read in exchange for an honest review.

Available tomorrow, look for it! Pub Date: 25 July 2023

I first encountered Pip Williams when she released her debut novel, The Dictionary of Lost Words, which I learned so much from. So I was so grateful when @penguinrandomhouse reached out to share a @netgalley copy of her newest novel with me. Thank you!!!

Although billed as a sequel, I would consider this more of a companion novel. It was fun to encounter some characters from The Dictionary of Lost Words again! As with her previous novel, Ms. Williams really did her homework. I was so enthralled with the history of book binding, and I knew so little about the Belgian refugees who fled to England during WWI.

This is where this author excels - bringing little-known facts to life through unforgettable characters. I loved the evolving relationship between twin sisters, Peggy and Maude, and appreciated the addition of Bastiaan, another strong character.

If you'd like to learn more about WWI within the context of a wonderful story, here's your ticket!

The book follows Peggy, a bookbinder, during WWI in England. She has a twin sister who lives wth her and works with her as a bookbinder. Peggy always dreamt of more but she never felt it was possible. But her life and everyone's begin to change with the war and the arrival of refugees from Belgium.

This book felt more than anything a slice of life story. We follow Peggy intimately; we know her every thought, her ambition, her fears, and her loves. But we don't really follow more aside from her point of view; what we see from the war, from the world aside from her point of view is told to her (so, to us) via letters - we don't get to experience, just to be told about it. Peggy is an extremely human character - sometimes, she is frustrating, enfuriating, and stubborn. But others she's sweet, loving, and deeply afraid of not belonging and of not achieving. It's always interesting to follow the type of character that we feel is going to go through a lot of development. But I did feel hers felt incomplete. By the end, I felt a sort of lack about her overall arc. I felt Maude (her sister) was much more dynamic than she was. The book has a really good ensemble of characters even though some of them are pretty one note.

It is important to note that we follow the bookbinding process in excruciating detail. So many details, that sometimes it felt really repetitive. Maybe that was the intention. But I just find it too much.

I did like the romance though. It was really sweet. A touch of melancholy did touch this thread throughout the book. It is an enjoyable read. But I did feel the ending of the book was a little bit more open ended than I usually like.

Thank you Netgalley, author, and publisher for the ARC.

Thanks to Random House for this ARC! I rated this 4 stars. It was a fantastic read. I love how it complements the author's first book, while being able to be read as a stand alone novel. Some of my favorite aspects were the numerous strong female characters, each quite unique from the other. And they each carried the flag for a different hefty theme in the book, be it the pursuit of education, autism, suffrage, dealing with trauma and PTSD, war, disfigurement etc.

My one major qualm with this story was that at times I felt like the pace was dragging. I wish it could have been tightened up in some points to keep the story moving along, particularly the parts about Bastien. I really liked him as a character, but he seemed to be an accessory to the main plot at times.

My online review goes into my thoughts more deeply: copied below for ease of access!

Pip Williams is a new author for me this summer, and I’ve really enjoyed her unique take on historical fiction! Both her debut novel, The Dictionary of Lost Words, and her newest book, The Bookbinder, center on the experience of women at the Oxford University Press during WWI. The Bookbinder gives an inside look at the women who helped fold, collate, and combine the printed sheets, while also tackling several challenges and changes happening during the Great War.

We meet Peggy, our main character, who works at the bindery with her twin sister, Maude. Though twins, they have very different personalities and demeanor. Throughout their story of adapting to the changes at the Press, particularly when army enlistments take away a wide swath of men and open up more jobs for women, we meet additional women who enhance the plot. These are strong women, brave and capable, who don’t shy away from what life has dealt them.

I love the many strong women that Pip Williams incorporates into this story! There’s Peggy, who persistently seeks more knowledge and learning, even if it’s just snippets from the books she is folding. As the main character, we readers get to see how she manages her fears and doubts while she bravely pursues her future. She doesn’t shy away from finding her place in the world, whether that be through love, serving others, getting more education, and ultimately facing her deepest fears.

Other strong women we see include Maude, who represents women on the autism spectrum. Through her, we see how she copes and manages to find independence in her life. There’s Lotte, whose nurturing and mothering nature shine through even as she struggles to process the trauma of her hometown’s horrific massacre. We also see Tilda, a character that carries over from Ms. William’s first novel. Even if you read The Bookbinder as a stand-alone story, you can see her character grow from wild and free to one that also shows her compassionate and open-minded facets.

Thanks to her descriptive writing, Ms. Williams crafts a strong mental picture of the Oxford University Press, the town, and the neighboring river. I loved how skillfully she developed the locations that her characters inhabit, and I got a vivid sense of place while I was reading.

This book definitely rates 4 stars for me, a worthy read for any fan of historical fiction! I felt like the one thing holding me back from 5 stars was the occasional slip in pacing. There were moments where it felt slow and even dragging to me. Bastien was a helpful character and foil to Peggy, but their storyline seemed superfluous at times, given the plot’s focus on Peggy’s quest for knowledge. He’s a sympathetic and supportive character, and I enjoyed their interactions, but I think something could have been tightened up there. Along with Bastien, I wondered at times if dealing with so many heavy-hitting topics – war, feminism, disfigurement, trauma, literacy, autism, suffrage – also affected the overall pacing. At times the continuity and pace suffered from trying to tackle all these topics in just one book!

I would definitely recommend The Bookbinder book to anyone who’s a fan of England, the Oxford English Dictionary and Oxford University, historical fiction, and World War I. A lot happened in the span of not many years, indelibly shaping future generations. Thanks to Random House for the advanced copy!

I wanted to love this book. It has all the elements that I normally enjoy. Unfortunately, the pace is so slow that I dragged the second half which made the reading experience not as satisfying as I thought it would be. The characters are very interesting and some of them absolutely charming. The idea is quite original, this binding girl that wants to study at the Oxford University, and become a scholar. A “from town to gown” type of story, with the great war as a background and a love story. But in my opinion the execution failed.