The room is dark, cold and you are completely alone. You can hear the noises from the town outside the thick walls and you are dimly aware of the bones of the room’s previous inhabitant buried underneath the stones at your feet. Only seventeen, you have chosen this cell for your grave.
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This concept can burn overwhelming feelings of panic, claustrophobia and insanity - and that is exactly what Robyn Cadwallader wants you to feel.
It took the Murrumbateman resident over four years to complete her book ‘Anchoress,’ the concept had been in the making for over 15 years. It is a novel evoking a paradox of horror and satisfaction, with a sense of unbearable sensuality.
The book is set in the 13th century, inspired by her PhD in medieval literature, her fascination with the attitudes of women in the Middle Ages and the fact that women at the time chose to lock themselves in these small Anchor Holes.
“I was reading and came across this concept and was intrigued and horrified by these women who chose to seal themselves away. The more I read the more I found that the women had chosen this themselves,” she said.
“As I began to think about the pressures of the time, I could see how they would want to be locked away.
“It's easy for me to sit in my comfortable seat in the 21st century and say such things, but I began to ask what the motivations of one of these women would be?”
Robyn wrote the book in first person narrative from protagonist Sarah’s experience within the cell. She allows the audience glimpses beyond the stone confinements into the mind of her male confessor.
“There are many different elements to the book. I liked the idea of such an extreme commitment. The purpose of the confinement was that they were suffering with Christ. Their only duties were to pray, read and teach,” she said.
“A religious commitment has so many strands to it, the book touches on questions as to why she is there and her motivations.”
Robyn describes the writing of the book as being in the cell with Sarah, feeling what she felt and imagining the many elements of internal conflict taking place.
“I know the cell really well, I just kept going back sitting there with her, imagining her experience. I was asking myself those questions about what it would all feel like.”
“I liked the idea that when the sense is lost, others become greater in tune, I could imagine that she would be very aware of everything around her; smells and sounds.”
Robyn said that she has an interest in spirituality and enough experience of organised religion to see the problems with the structures, and describes her impetus in spirituality rather like being able to see the world in a grain of sand.
“A lot of people say they are just inside the cell and that some of the suspense comes from the urgency that they want her to get out.”
She had to be conscious of the balance between claustrophobia and not overwhelming the reader, and that in some ways it was her pure instinct that achieved this.
“The issue of the balance isn't a question of pace, but also what goes on inside that claustrophobic vibe.”
“I went to England on a scholarship and saw many Anchor Holes. I sat in one for 20 minutes with my kids. They were very freaked out, I didn't find it as scary, but it definitely brought home a lot of the feelings described in the book.”
“One of the more disturbing things is that they buried the bones of the previous anchoress in the cell.”
With agents in the US, England and Australia, Robyn said that she is already trying to work on her next novel about a 14th century Luminator.
Having just returned from the Perth Writers Festival and a book launch in Adelaide, there are a number of different writers festival on the horizon.
