I've put together a reference page, Hild: roundup-of-roundups where you can find all previous roundups of interview and review links in one place. I'll do my best to keep it updated (which shouldn't be too hard; the book's been out for more than two months now).
Paris Review
[The introductory paragraph:]
"Late in Nicola Griffith’s 1998 novel The Blue Place, her protagonist, Aud Torvingen, speaks rapturously about a spot on the coast of England. “Have I told you about Whitby Abbey, on the Yorkshire coast? There’s a ruin there that dates from the twelfth century, very haunting, very gothic, but the first abbey there was founded in the seventh century by Hilda. There’s a power there.” Fifteen years later, Griffith’s latest novel, Hild, explores the early life of the woman who would go on to become Hilda of Whitby."
"Late in Nicola Griffith’s 1998 novel The Blue Place, her protagonist, Aud Torvingen, speaks rapturously about a spot on the coast of England. “Have I told you about Whitby Abbey, on the Yorkshire coast? There’s a ruin there that dates from the twelfth century, very haunting, very gothic, but the first abbey there was founded in the seventh century by Hilda. There’s a power there.” Fifteen years later, Griffith’s latest novel, Hild, explores the early life of the woman who would go on to become Hilda of Whitby."
[I'd forgotten all about that passage in TBP. Wow. Carroll did an admirable and thorough job.]
Author’s Magazine (video)
[This was recorded at the height of my unwellness last month, and it shows. But if you can get past how terrible I look, what I'm saying is fine.]
REVIEWS
Flavorwire
"In winter I like sprawling novels, full of conflict and intrigue, and during the bleakest, coldest days of December I holed up with Nicola Griffith’s Hild, a book of love and sex and war and religious upheaval, and I recommend it even over the warmest pair of Sorels." Maud Newton
KOHO Radio (audio)
[In which Pat Rutledge, from a Book For All Seasons in Leavenworth, talks about Hild. She loves it. Seriously. Go listen.]
Kristen Hannum
Bright mind, quiet mouth
"If you read Hild, and I heartily recommend that you do, notice how Griffith describes place, transporting you to a wild, early Britain. Notice how she shows us how Hild thinks, in terms of patterns, a metaphor of the weft and warp of weaving that well-born women learned from earliest childhood. “Hild walked the hills in the golden time before dusk, senses wide open but no longer restless. One evening she was moved to tears by the blaze of crimson, gold, and green of the wold, moving at the centre of a vast pattern that she knew she would never have the words to explain. The pattern watched over her from the face of every leaf and every tiny flower of furze. She felt safe and sure.”"
Kristen Hannum
Bright mind, quiet mouth
"If you read Hild, and I heartily recommend that you do, notice how Griffith describes place, transporting you to a wild, early Britain. Notice how she shows us how Hild thinks, in terms of patterns, a metaphor of the weft and warp of weaving that well-born women learned from earliest childhood. “Hild walked the hills in the golden time before dusk, senses wide open but no longer restless. One evening she was moved to tears by the blaze of crimson, gold, and green of the wold, moving at the centre of a vast pattern that she knew she would never have the words to explain. The pattern watched over her from the face of every leaf and every tiny flower of furze. She felt safe and sure.”"
[A Catholic perspective on the novel. Worth reading.]
The Lawrentian
Nokes on New Books, Lauren Nokes
"This well researched and beautifully written work of historical fiction tells the story of St. Hild of Whitby as a young woman in seventh-century Anglo-Saxon England. The new religion of Christianity conflicts with the old pagan gods and feudalism holds sway. After the death of her father, Hild becomes court Seer for her uncle. Griffith writes vividly about life during the Middle Ages, especially the joys and struggles of female lives."
[First time I’ve seen something from a student newspaper so I couldn’t resist including it.]
MISCELLANEOUS
San Francisco Chronicle
"Hild, by Nicola Griffith: Young, observant Hild, niece to the king, navigates the tumult of seventh century Britain as kingdoms merge and crumble. Griffith's prose transports and beguiles."
This blog has moved.
My blog now lives here:
http://nicolagriffith.com/blog/
