'A welcome addition to medieval history giving us a window into the lives of women that many
people only know by name if at all.' PHILIPPA GREGORY author of The Other Boleyn Girl and
Normal Women A spectacular vivid groundbreaking work of history which takes us into the
minds and lives of medieval women. What was life really like for women in the medieval
period? How did they think about sex death and God? Could they live independent lives? And how
can we hear the stories of women from this period? Few women had the luxury of writing down
their thoughts and feelings during medieval times. But remarkably there are at least four
extraordinary women who did. Those women were: Marie de France a poet Julian of Norwich a
mystic and anchoress Christine de Pizan a widow and court writer and Margery Kempe a
"no-good wife". In their own ways these four very different writers pushed back against the
misogyny of the period. Each of them broke new ground in women's writing and left us incredible
insights into the world of medieval life and politics. Hetta Howes has spent her working life
uncovering these women's stories to give us a valuable and unique historical biography of their
lives that challenges what we hold to be common knowledge about medieval women in Europe. Women
did earn money they could live independent lives and they thought loved fought and suffered
just as we do today. This mesmerising book is an unforgettably lively and immersive journey
into the everyday lives of medieval women through the stories of these four iconic women
writers some of which are retold here for general readers for the first time.
