Review: Cuddy by Benjamin Myers

Cuddy by Benjamin Myers is an historical fiction novel told in a blend of writing styles, including: narrative prose, quotes from historical reference books, poetry, diary entries and even a play. Anticipating a novel about the life of Saint Cuthbert of Lindisfarne told in a fictional first person point of view, Cuddy was an unexpected story.

Born in 634 AD in Northumbria (modern day Scotland), Cuthbert had been a monk, a prior and a bishop and was a hermit at the time of his death in 687 AD. Beloved in life, many came to pray at his grave at Lindisfarne and were healed. Deciding to elevate his remains as relics on the anniversary of his death, his body was found intact - hadn't decomposed - and he was declared a saint. Pilgrims visited the shrine for decades until Viking raids threatened the area.

Cuthbert's body was transferred to a coffin and transported by a dedicated group of worshippers seeking a safe resting place for their beloved saint. On the move until the year 995, a site was finally chosen and a series of churches were built to house St Cuthbert's remains. Construction of Durham Cathedral commenced in 1093 and still houses the Shrine of St Cuthbert today.

Pieced together from the non fiction quotes in the book, I share all of this because it's a fascinating slice of history and if you're still reading, it means you agree. Myers has created characters from each of these periods of Cuthbert's history in the wildly different formats mentioned above.

We hear from Cuthbert (affectionately known as Cuddy) early in the book but he's already close to death:

"Well now. You should have been here a candle or two ago. The scenes of despair amongst the monks at my final days of retreat to this bluff in the foaming ocean was quite the picture." Page 7

I love that phrase, 'a candle or two ago.' In Book I we join the religious folk in 995 AD carrying Cuthbert's remains and an orphan girl who has visions regarding his final resting place.

In Book II we jump to the year 1346 and through the eyes of the fletcher's wife, meet a stonemason engaged in building the great Durham Cathedral. The work of the mason and the history of the stone - then and now centuries later - was beautifully written:

"In the stone is yesterday's sun and the stories it has seen, not only of wandering holy folk and the fiery Norse, not only old white churches and milkmaids, galloping Frenchmen and the green men that took to the trees but other details not always pressed to the page by monks. Everything the stone has borne silent witness to is held within it now...... Rainstorms and quarrymen, Picts, plague pits and paupers, hawkers and jesters, skirling new life and coughing old death, archers and anglers, devils and angels, sunrises and sunsets, courting couples sitting on stone walls watching snowfall, villeins and franklin and wandering freemen, nets of cuttlefish and pails of crabs, sores and scabs, bed-bound mothers and gaoled fathers, babies - a thousand wailing babies - and church bells, cabbage soup and nettles and worms and sacks and jam and garlic and knives and deer and murder and toll gates and caravans and soothsayers and plums and coffin-makers and lepers and laughter and ice and logs and oats and sex and sin and Cuddy and Jesus and God." Page 237

I know that was a long quote, but it perfectly captures the awe and wonder I feel when gazing at a Cathedral built more than 1000 years ago and I want to be able to revisit these words again, even if I no longer have the book.

Leaving those characters behind to leap forward a few centuries, the Interlude was based on a haunting and shocking account of history. In 1650, Durham Cathedral was used as a prison by Oliver Cromwell to house 3,000 Scottish prisoners of war. Suffering in the cold without food or water, the prisoners destroyed the pews and burned the timber in order to keep warm. Devastatingly, 1,700 soldiers died from battle injuries, dehydration and starvation and were buried in mass graves nearby.

This is a disturbing chapter of history I knew nothing about but certainly won't forget, as the author has created a macabre play for the Interlude, whereby several soldiers being held captive engage in dialogue with eachother and the cathedral. Yes, you read that right.

It was a relief to reach Book III covering the period in 1827 when an arrogant Professor from Oxford travels to the Cathedral to oversee the disinterment of the saint in order to verify his remains are uncorrupted. Diary entries tell this tale and the character is haunted by his complicity and fears for his sanity. I felt the author's outrage at the desecration and believe the character met a satisfying fate. 

Book IV brings us to 2019 and it was perhaps an unnecessarily long tale to deliver the reader to Durham Cathedral and the tomb of St Cuthbert.

Cuddy by Benjamin Myers seemed to me to be the story behind the building of Durham Cathedral over time told through the lives of a handful of individuals:

"My story, and that of Fletcher Bullard, just one story in a thousand million stories that combine to define a place, concludes thusly:" Page 263

While brief, each serves as a complete story and while the reader may be reluctant to leave a character or point in time, their stories reach a natural conclusion of sorts.

A word on the layout as there were several techniques that were used - presumably - to impress but which I found slightly irritating. In one case, a character's visions were presented in one continuous paragraph with font that slowly reduced in size until it was barely readable by the end. Elsewhere, poetry was presented with varying alignment choices that left me cold, with just one word or sometimes even one letter per line. I guess you could say that while I enjoyed the mashup of writing styles within Cuddy, the unconventional layout choices fell short of the mark.

The descriptions of the cathedral from characters across time were incredible, with the 2019 character of Michael describing the vast edifice before him as enrapturing. It certainly had me pausing at certain times in the novel to research a fact or take a virtual tour of the cathedral and I'd love to visit in person one day, even just to see the sanctuary knocker.

"The face of the Sanctuary Knocker then, is that of the lonely miscreant, the damned, the doomed, the cursed, the blasted, the blighted, the bedevilled, the fated; he who shall live their life seeking God's eternal forgiveness alone." Page 197

Now that I've finished reading Cuddy, I believe it to be the complex history of Durham Cathedral rather than the story of a saint. This unique blend of fact and fiction and multiple writing styles felt original and is recommended for fans of Ken Follett and his series beginning with The Pillars of the Earth.

Prologue AD 687
Book I Saint Cuddy AD 995
Book II The Mason's Mark AD 1346
Interlude The Stone Speaks AD 1650
Book III The Corpse in the Cathedral AD 1827
Book IV Daft Lad AD 2019

My Rating:

★ ★ ★ ★ ★