' A fascinating book about four women - it tells us so much about their world and about our
own. What jumps off the page is the liveliness of the women their passion their courage and
their own way of being... ' PHILIPPA GREGORY author of The Other Boleyn Girl and Normal Women
' Brilliantly revealing' Observer 'A celebration of female ambition and endeavour...
enormous fun' The Sunday Times 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 their stories? 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. 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
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 think
we know 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 mesmerizing 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. ' Full of surprises and packed with thrilling details this is an
important eye-opening book.' ALICE LOXTON author of Eighteen and Uproar! ' This
meticulously researched book makes visible so much that popular models of medieval life have
found inconvenient or uninteresting to accommodate' NOREEN MASUD author of A Flat Place -
shortlisted for Women's Prize ' Hetta Howes unflinchingly explores the trials medieval women
faced and importantly how they fought back.' TABITHA STANMORE author of Cunning Folk: Life
in the Era of Practical Magic ' Vivid deeply researched and addictively readable' IRINA
DUMITRESCU Professor of English Medieval Studies at the University of Bonn and co-host of
Medieval LOLs 'Spirited sparky' ANTHONY BALE author of A Travel Guide to the Middle Ages
