Brother William's Year

Brother William is a kind-hearted 14th-Century monk gardener at Westminster Abbey responsible for providing food for the other monks. This diary of his year shows what happens month by month in delightful words and pictures. There are decorative endpapers of the Abbey and gardens, an introduction to the Abbey of Westminster and a note on the life of Benedictine monks - all meticulously researched, written and illustrated with warmth and humour by Westminster Abbey's very own Head Gardener.



'Brother William's Year by Jan Pancheri is a gorgeous book and offers an interesting lesson on medieval history for anyone. It will be useful not only for history lessons but also as away of demonstrating the 'journal writing' genre and the power of the first person voice. The print book is not in danger while works of this quality continue to be published by insightful publishers like Frances Lincoln.'

- Dr Margaret Mallet, Judge of the English Association Awards

To watch a video introduction of Brother William's Year from Park Ridge Public Library in Chicago click here

Brother William is my name. My home is Westminster Abbey and the year

is 1383. I am a monk and I am also the Abbey gardener. I grow all the food we eat and the herbs we use for medicine, and I keep the garden looking neat and tidy.

To help me, I have a friend called Rufus, who shares my home and my food.

About 80 other monks live in the monastery. We call each other Brothers, and each of us has a job.

We live by the rule of St Benedict, which means we all work very hard. Everyone's job is equally important, to make the monastery run smoothly.

The clothes we wear - called habits - used to be black but they have faded after washing. Only the Abbot's habit is really black because his doesn't get as dirty as ours.