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Normal Women
900 Years of Making History
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?
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Description
The Sunday Times Bestseller
‘A lasting work of social history’ The Times
‘A genuinely new history of our nation’ Dan Jones
‘This celebration of women is a triumph of popular history’ Spectator
'Philippa Gregory uses all her bestseller skills to weave a narrative with pace' Antonia Fraser
From the multi-million bestselling historical novelist comes the culmination of her life’s work
- Did you know that there are more penises than women in the Bayeux Tapestry?
- That the Peasant’s Revolt was started and propelled by women, protesting a tax on women?
- Or that celebrated naturalist Charles Darwin believed not just that women were naturally inferior to men but that they’d evolve to become ever more inferior?
These are just a few of the startling findings you will learn from reading Philippa Gregory’s Normal Women. In this ambitious and groundbreaking book, she tells the story of our nation over 900 years. For the very first time, women—some fifty per cent of the population—are no longer invisible in this history of England, but are at its beating heart.
Using research skills honed in her work as one of our foremost historical novelists, Gregory trawled through court records to find highway women, beggars, and shepherdesses, through newspapers and diaries to find murderers and brides, housewives and pirates, female husbands and hermits. The ‘normal women’ you will meet in her pages went to war, ploughed the fields, campaigned, wrote, and loved. They rode in jousts, flew Spitfires, issued their own currency and built ships, corn mills, and houses as part of their everyday lives. They committed crimes, or treason, worshipped many gods, cooked and nursed, invented things and rioted. A lot. They built our society to be as diverse and varied as the women themselves. They are there in the archives—if you look—and they made our history.
‘You’ll lose count of the number of things you learn about women and their skewed place in history … the book reframes the past … an essential read’ Independent, Five-Star Review
Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?
Philippa Gregory's Normal Women offers an empowering re-evaluation of women's roles throughout history. Critics praise Gregory for using her novelist's eye to highlight the often overlooked impact of women, portraying them as central to societal development across time. The book is commended for its successful blend of meticulous research and engaging narrative, redefining women's place in history and celebrating their enduring contributions.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9780008601706
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Format: Hardback
Date Published: 26 October 2023
Country: United Kingdom
Imprint: William Collins
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 47.0mm
Width: 159.0mm
Height: 240.0mm
Weight: 1050g
Pages: 688
About the Author
DR PHILIPPA GREGORY studied history at the University of Sussex and was awarded a PhD by the University of Edinburgh where she is a Regent and was made Alumna of the Year in 2009. She holds an honorary degree from Teesside University, and is a fellow of the Universities of Sussex and Cardiff. Philippa is a member of the Society of Authors and in 2016, was presented with the Outstanding Contribution to Historical Fiction Award by the Historical Writers' Association. In 2018, she was awarded an Honorary Platinum Award by Neilsen for achieving significant lifetime sales across her entire book output. In 2021, she was awarded a CBE for services to literature and to her charity Gardens for the Gambia, and was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.
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