The publication of the latest, updated, photo-book of Margaret Rope’s works has proved a happy day for all her fans.
‘A Painter In Light’, produced by Arthur Rope, a distant cousin of Margaret’s, is a revised and improved edition of his ‘Margaret Rope of Shrewsbury’ volume (2016), which is now all but sold out.

This glossy book, over fifty pages in B4 document-size, is quite an achievement, containing over one hundred superb photos of her stained-glass, in what the publishers describe as “an exhibition of her works… in a book”.

It builds on the 2016 edition, but now has many extras including an extended biography (now four times bigger) and a section on the Margaret Rope Archive, which opened in 2020.
Art-historians will be pleased too that some of the confusion that existed over the dating of windows has been cleared up, thanks to extensive research over the last five years.

Photos

The main improvement however is the quality of the photos. Professional and semi-professional photographers have contributed new images, especially of Marga’s outstanding seven windows in Shrewsbury Cathedral. Because some of the windows in the cathedral are so high up, it does need expertise to photograph them properly – and the effort has been completely worthwhile.
Also – at last! – there is a good photo of the cathedral’s St Ambrose Window.

The quality of the pictures also means that the author has been able to blow many images up, and thus pinpoint for us many tiny details not seen before.

Additions

There are high-quality photos of 99% of the windows by Marga, including, one is pleased to say, one of the recently revealed ‘Priesthood’ West Window at Upholland.
Thank goodness too that there are new photos of the glass at Ss Peter & Paul in Newport. Necessary restoration work had to be carried out there on one window in 2022, and new photos in this book reflect the vast improvement in that window’s appearance.

Margaret’s work in painting on wood was only a ‘sideline’ for her, but it has many admirers, so there are photos of that too, especially of the series of panels at Sale.

There is only one major image missing – that of the Good Samaritan Window at Randfontein in South Africa. Although there is a monochrome version in the book, a colour version would be a lovely addition. If some kind person reading this has a colour image of that window, please get in touch!

Is there anything else one might wish for? Only one thing – photos of how the windows look as sunlight streams through them. As the title predicates, Marga’s work depends on light for its full effect.
However, taking good photos of the way stained-glass works in sunlight is notoriously difficult, almost impossible, so that hope must wait for a future day.
What the author of this book has done is concentrate on photos clearly showing Marga’s sense of composition, design, stories, unique colouring and, of course, her passion for what she did. His short but pithy captions usefully highlight aspects of each work.

It is a fabulous achievement.

Buying options

Having read this review, you might think the book will turn out to be expensive. However, at £15, it’s ridiculously cheap for what it is. The price has been kept low thanks to some grants.

It is available online through Waterstones – though it can take three weeks to arrive.

If you visit Shrewsbury, Marga’s home-town, copies of the work are also to be found on the shelves in the Orchard Cafe (which is next to Shrewsbury Cathedral); and also in the town’s Pengwern Bookshop. Pengwern will also do mail-order for you – just email Susan and she will let you know the process.
Or there is also direct mail-order from the author, Arthur Rope.

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NB
This new book is almost completely photos, so anyone wanting to get the full text about Marga’s windows should find their way to the MargaWorks Website, where there are some detailed monographs about the windows as well as more on Marga’s family background.

Also, this book is only about the works of Margaret Agnes Rope (aka Sister Margaret of The Mother of God) so fans of the work of Marga’s cousin, Margaret Aldrich Rope, should look instead to a sister volume, also written & produced by Arthur Rope, called ‘Margaret Aldrich Rope of Leiston’.

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