'Previous biographies of Ferrar and Little Gidding cloud over aspects of the family's history in a 'hagiographic haze' that removes the participants from their seventeeth-century context...The portrait of Nicolas Ferrar that Ransome presents is sympathetic but nuanced; he is both a mystic and a micromanager...Rasome argues, it is the Ferrar's way of life, the validity of their prayer, to use Eliot's term, or their determination, in their own words, to be a Pattern in an age that needs patterns, that is both their primary achievement and the reason they are still held in the church's memory.'Anglican Theological Review, Regina L. Walton. The story of Nicholas Ferrar and the community he and his family established at Little Gidding in Huntingdonshire has been described in earlier biographies of Nicholas Ferrar himself, but despite his name being added to the Anglican Calendar in 1980, the history of Little Gidding is not well-known. Joyce Ransome has written a scholarly survey of the life of Nicholas and of the community he founded. Her aim is to offer a critical study of Litte Gidding, moving beyond the hagiography of earlier accounts, which have largely accepted at face value the materials collected by John Ferrar after his brother's death. The picture that emerges from these pages is far more complex and reveals a much more interesting mix of a deep commitment by many of the Ferrar family leading the life of a Christian community alongside a constant struggle to maintain a balance between voluntary acceptance and subtle spiritual pressures to conform. [ - ] Joyce Ransome has also succeeded in showing the importance of Nicholas Ferrar and Little Gidding in the story of the Church of England. Nicholas himself emerges as a more nuanced figure than in earlier hagiographic accounts, and all the more credible and interesting for that. He certainly warrants his place in the Calendar. Bob Whyte: Reviews in Religion and Theology, Vol. 19 (3), 2012. Taking as an interpretive motif the intricate and beautiful biblical harmonies produced, almost against the odds, within this contemplative retreat, Ransom judiciously reassesses Little Gidding as a functioning community. Peter Thompson (St Cross College, Oxford) in: The Journal of Ecclesiastical History, Vol. 63 (4), October 2012 All those with an interest in Huntingdonshire's history and particularly members of our Society will welcome this new biography of Nicholas Ferrar - the book will appeal to both an academic and an informed general audience - it was enjoyable to read and explores not just the life of Nicholas Ferrar and the community but sheds light on several aspects of contemporary social economic history. Ken Sneath in Huntingdonshire Records Vol. 3 No. 8. 'Taking as an interpretive motif the intricate and beautiful biblical harmonies produced, almost against the odds, within this contemplative retreat, Ransome judiciously reassesses Little Gidding as a functioning community.' Peter Thompson in Journal of Ecclesiastical History, Vol. 63/4, October 2012. 'All those with an interest in Huntingdonshire's history and particularly members of our Society will welcome this new biography of Nicholas Ferrar [...] The book will appeal to both an academic and an informed general audience [...] It was enjoyable to read and explores not just the life of Nicholas Ferrar and the community but sheds light on several aspects of contemporary social and economic history.' Ken Sneath in Huntingdonshire Records, 2012. ... The community at Little Gidding that emerges in the gentle Huntingdonshire countryside in the mid- 1620s, under the leadership of Nicholas Ferrar and his mother Mary, has held its fascination down the years. It is still, today, a place of retreat and prayer. The experiment has been recognised as an important contribution to the Anglican tradition that still inspires. This careful and detailed study of its origins is a valuable contribution and resource for understanding the people and circumstances that produced such an experiment and how it fits into that crucial period, just before the Civil War, of Anglican history... Paul Ballard, Theological book review, Vol. 24, No 2, 2012. '...Joyce Ransome has written a very helpful biography of the Little Gidding community and in particular Nicholas Ferrar. This is a significant work that has completed original research in the letters and documents associated with this important 17th- century Anglican community...[...] The book includes much original research, careful weighing of evidence, and most helpfully analysis of the influence of this original society on later societies within the Church of England. Phillip Tovey, Archives: The Journal of the British Record Association, Vol xxxvii n. 125, March 2013. - an impartial, historical account - Peter Wilward, The Heythrop Journal, Volume 54, Issue 6, September 2013 '[The Web of Friendship] is a work of exhaustive academic research and therefore provides a much more comprehensive insight into Nicholas Ferrar's early life, his motivations, personality and his times, all elements which influenced the creation and management of the community of Little Gidding [ - ] Ransome's work is realistic in its assessment of Ferrar's community and the nature of human relationships within that community; she draws upon her sources to provide a refreshingly honest assessment of Ferrar's Little Gidding.' Mary Jepp, Theology, Vol.116, No 5, September / October 2013
