Penelope Wilcock
Penelope Wilcock’s first book, The Hawk & The Dove was written in 1989, quickly followed by The Wounds Of God and The Long Fall. These novels articulate the scriptural principle that God’s power is shown in human weakness, and give a voice to the voiceless in describing some of the struggles of disability. They are stories of mercy and grace. The publisher of the trilogy, Crossway, republished it in 2000 in the one-volume format in which it now retails. 2010 sees the 20th year of the trilogy being continuously in print, and Pen Wilcock is celebrating this by writing a new trilogy of stories returning to the same setting and characters. Fans of St Alcuins Abbey – watch this space!
Some of her early work includes Thereby Hangs a Tale, a book of short stories expressing the struggle of some of the people for whom church is not easy. She co-wrote Urban Angel, a book of poems celebrating urban spirituality, with Stewart Henderson – and that book is made beautiful by the art work of Ben Ecclestone. Pen also has the usual patchwork of chapters written for collections (pastoral theology usually) and she writes a regular column on living simply for the UK Christian magazine Woman Alive.
Pen’s novel The Clear Light Of Day, published about four years ago by David C.Cook, who took it on for the US from Monarch who published in the UK, looks at questions of where the wellsprings of spiritual refreshment lie – in our work, in our roots, in our lifestyle, in our personal relationships, in the institutions of the church?
Her recent work includes In Celebration Of Simplicity (published in 2009 by Monarch for Lion Hudson), which explores the Gospel imperative of living simply, taking a quiet and humble path through life. Pen’s blog Kindred Of The Quiet Way pursues similar lines of thinking as well as including her musings on Life, the Universe and Everything. Most recently in 2010 Lion has published her book Learning To Let Go, which explores the issues facing people who must make the decision that they can no longer live independently and must make the move into residential care.
With her UK publisher (Monarch) at the present time is her book The Road Of Blessing (scheduled for publication in January 2011), a companion volume to In Celebration Of Simplicity, looking at the biblical principles that make every life better than it otherwise might have been. With her US publisher (Crossway) is the first book of her new trilogy, The Hardest Thing To Do, waiting on a Yea or Nay from the publishing meeting.
Her projects on the desk right now are the second volume of the new trilogy, and a revision and update of her book Spiritual Care of Bereaved and Dying People (scheduled for issue in its expanded version in Spring 2011), which can be found in the libraries of many hospices around the UK as well as being recommended reading in some ordination seminaries.
After a nightmare decade of being divorced, re-married and widowed, Pen got married for the third time in 2006 – to the publisher who edited most of her books beginning with that very first novel back in 1989. It is a very happy marriage, and this erudite, bookish, rather introvert couple consider Neil Diamond’s Delirious Love to have been written with them in mind. Between them they have seven daughters who keep them poor and humble, and they live by the sea in that part of England where William the Conqueror first set foot in 1066. You can still see the house he built, but it’s more of an open-air bungalow now.