A Kind Of Magic: The Binding By Bridget Collins

I have heard of, and understand the value of, writing something down as a form of catharsis. A means of being able to move on, without having to dwell on unhappy or unpleasant details while knowing that they are safe should you ever need to revisit them; The Binding takes that idea to a whole new level. I have also written previously about being transported through books to other times and places, meeting new people and broadening experience, albeit secondhand and often through fictional narratives. In this case, I was glad only to be an onlooker as I read this novel. Grateful for the distance provided by the undated time period. Coaches and carriages, riders on horseback, oil lamps and cobbled back streets are enough to create a generic historical setting without having to pin it down to anything specific.

We all fear what we do not understand and the peasant did not understand the old magic and feared the books which bound people’s stories, believing the ancient curses they may contain.

The Binding opens when Emmett Farmer is ill. As suggested by his name, he comes from a farming family and as the eldest son, they have come to rely on him. He has been ill for some time, however, and has been less and less reliable, until one day, a letter arrives. He has been chosen to become an apprentice. What a stroke of luck, you might think, but he is to be apprenticed to Seredith, an old woman regarded by many to be a witch. She is a binder and believes Emmett was born to bind books. It is his calling, she says, although he did not know it until this time. Unclear about what the binder actually does but knowing that his father’s wrath when he once innocently bought a book at a fayre, is not something he wishes to witness again, Emmett is afraid but given no choice. He goes to live with Seredith who can heal him as well as harness his talent.

Some things you do forget, but it doesn’t mean they didn’t happen, it just means you can move on with greater peace of mind. Beautifully written, the fluid narrative is engrossing, as the reader learns with Emmett the secret of Seredith’s books. There is danger, first witnessed when the drunken mob comes and threatens to burn down the house with all its contents. The threat of a return of ‘the Crusade’ is left hanging like an ominous shadow from which even Seredith shrinks.

So, what is the secret of the books and the skill of the binder? What price memories? Savoured and valued, cherished even in many cases, but some are best forgotten. Some gnaw at you as you return to them time and again, like worrying a loose tooth. Pressing replay is not always healthy or comforting but somehow cannot be avoided. Some things you do forget, but it doesn’t mean they didn’t happen, it just means you can move on with greater peace of mind. The book binders go so much further; they take your memories and bind them in a book so that you no longer have any recollection of them whatever. They are mind altering and in the hands of the unscrupulous, a means of controlling victims, particularly young servant girls who have provided entertainment and gratification for their masters. This novel takes the droit de seigneur to new heights. Then there are unscrupulous booksellers who, far from protecting the books and storing them safely in vaults, instead, sell them to people with salacious appetites, voyeurs who revel in sordid secrecy and care not that they are reading about someone else’s misfortune.

The narrative focusses on love of all types; earthy, lusty and real but ultimately, forbidden. The dirt is both literal and metaphorical as the tawdry secrets of the idle, arrogant rich are revealed.The Binding is divided into three parts. The first introduces the major players. While working for Seredith, Emmett meets Lucian Darnay, son of the wealthy Piers Darnay, and cannot understand their shared antipathy. On the death of Seredith, Emmett has no time to grieve for the woman to whom he has grown close, but is forced to work for de Havilland, a binder of little integrity who happens to be Seredith’s heir. Part I ends when Emmett discovers his own truth. Part II explores Emmett’s past, happier times, and reveals what happened between him and Lucian Darnay, thought, at one time, to be a suitor for Emmett’s younger sister, Alta. Hatred and jealousy are turned to dislike, to grudging friendship, to camaraderie, to much more. There is a sense of foreboding throughout Part II, however, with storms forever on the horizon and a pervading unease which bodes ill.

In Part III, the narrator changes as Lucian takes up the tale, searching as he is, for something he cannot quite grasp. He knows there is something he doesn’t understand but is unable to find the answer. His father is a cruel man and the reader feels some sympathy for the boy, trapped in his gilded cage.

An intense, crafted and compelling read Ultimately, all is revealed and while the ending is not final, the quest both boys have undertaken, is over. The narrative focusses on love of all types; earthy, lusty and real but ultimately, forbidden. The dirt is both literal and metaphorical as the tawdry secrets of the idle, arrogant rich are revealed. There is sympathy for the innocent victims, the ignorant and those made ignorant. Also, there is damning indictment of those who take advantage of others, to quench their own pernicious thirst.

This darkly gothic tale is spellbinding – I use the pun wisely. An intense, crafted and compelling read and one which a couple of friends have chosen not to finish because of its disturbing nature. Once started, however, just like Emmett, I needed to find answers and read on.



The Binding is published by The Borough Press