Writing a book--any book--usually takes far longer than you might imagine. There are so many processes and stages to go through, you see, before it's fit for human consumption: all the various drafts; numerous revisions; the beta reading; edits; cover; proof reading... the list goes on and on.
As you might have already guessed, unlike so many of my writer buddies, I'm a particularly slow writer, a turtle of the book-writing world--mainly because I like to faff about fixing and rejigging stuff as I go, so I can't imagine how long it must have taken those marvellous monks to complete the gob-smackingly wonderful 'Book of Kells.'
"...The place of origin of the Book of Kells is generally attributed to the scriptorium of the monastery founded around 561 by St Colum Cille on Iona, an island off the west coast of Scotland. In 806, following a Viking raid on the island which left 68 of the community dead, the Columban monks took refuge in a new monastery at Kells, County Meath. It must have been close to the year 800 that the Book of Kells was written, although there is no way of knowing if the book was produced wholly at Iona or at Kells, or partially at each location..."
The good news is, instead of having to queue up for hours to glimpse a couple of pages of this amazing book, it's now available to view online in all its magnificent entirety. Best of all, it's absolutely FREE.
Enjoy!
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