Diary: Anakana Schofield and the Nun of Kenmare

The author’s well-worn copy of The Nun of Kenmare

The month of February is a little curt. It has a day or two less. It has the awful red blobbing day in the middle of it, which for many of us exaggerates circumstances preferably left in the background. A hot trot to your bookshelves can produce unexpected matches on these long February nights. In 2015, I purchased a handsome green autobiography from the Bibioasis bookshop in Windsor, Ontario. I was deeply hesitant. The book was a pricey, $75. Were we going to be a good match? The title, The Nun of Kenmare, and the author’s opening resignation letter from the sisterhood to the Pope, Leo XIII, mentioning the ill-will towards her of certain bishops, sufficiently intrigued me. Published in 1889, The Nun of Kenmare, in addition to being a fascinating account of assertive authorship in unlikely circumstances, contains entirely accidental and most useful dating advice. I beg to subscribe myself of it and share it with you, dear reader, in this the dowdiest of months, with the highest respect for the chaste sister.