Normal Women: Nine Hundred Years of Making History

“An amazing read.” —The Los Angeles Times

The #1 New York Times bestselling historical novelist delivers her magnum opus—a landmark work of feminist nonfiction that radically redefines our understanding of the extraordinary roles ordinary women played throughout British history.

AN INDIE BESTSELLER

Did you know that there are more penises than women in the Bayeux Tapestry? That the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381 was started and propelled by women who were 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 of women's history, she tells the story of England over 900 years, for the very first time placing women—some fifty per cent of the population—center stage.

Using research skills honed in her work as one of our foremost historical novelists, Gregory trawled through court records, newspapers, and journals to find:

  • highwaywomen
  • beggars
  • murderers
  • brides
  • housewives
  • pirates
  • female husbands
  • hermits

The “normal women” you will meet in these 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. They committed crimes or treason, worshipped many gods, cooked and nursed, invented things, and rioted. A lot.

A landmark work of social history, scholarship, and storytelling, Normal Women chronicles centuries of social and cultural change—from 1066 to modern times—powered by the determination, persistence, and effectiveness of women.

*INCLUDES ILLUSTRATIONS THROUGHOUT AND A FULL-COLOR INSERT*

“An expansive, inclusive and elegantly woven nonfiction account of the lives of women in England from the Norman Conquest to the modern day. To describe it as merely a retelling is to undermine a core principle: This is a history of women in England, yes, but it is also a history of England, full stop. . . . At more than 500 pages, with extensive endnotes and a 30-page index, Normal Women is a behemoth you may be inclined to skim, until you realize you’re actually luxuriating in every word.” —The New York Times

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Normal Women: Nine Hundred Years of Making History

“An amazing read.” —The Los Angeles Times

The #1 New York Times bestselling historical novelist delivers her magnum opus—a landmark work of feminist nonfiction that radically redefines our understanding of the extraordinary roles ordinary women played throughout British history.

AN INDIE BESTSELLER

Did you know that there are more penises than women in the Bayeux Tapestry? That the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381 was started and propelled by women who were 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 of women's history, she tells the story of England over 900 years, for the very first time placing women—some fifty per cent of the population—center stage.

Using research skills honed in her work as one of our foremost historical novelists, Gregory trawled through court records, newspapers, and journals to find:

  • highwaywomen
  • beggars
  • murderers
  • brides
  • housewives
  • pirates
  • female husbands
  • hermits

The “normal women” you will meet in these 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. They committed crimes or treason, worshipped many gods, cooked and nursed, invented things, and rioted. A lot.

A landmark work of social history, scholarship, and storytelling, Normal Women chronicles centuries of social and cultural change—from 1066 to modern times—powered by the determination, persistence, and effectiveness of women.

*INCLUDES ILLUSTRATIONS THROUGHOUT AND A FULL-COLOR INSERT*

“An expansive, inclusive and elegantly woven nonfiction account of the lives of women in England from the Norman Conquest to the modern day. To describe it as merely a retelling is to undermine a core principle: This is a history of women in England, yes, but it is also a history of England, full stop. . . . At more than 500 pages, with extensive endnotes and a 30-page index, Normal Women is a behemoth you may be inclined to skim, until you realize you’re actually luxuriating in every word.” —The New York Times

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Normal Women: Nine Hundred Years of Making History

Normal Women: Nine Hundred Years of Making History

by Philippa Gregory
Normal Women: Nine Hundred Years of Making History

Normal Women: Nine Hundred Years of Making History

by Philippa Gregory

Hardcover

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Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

If you’re tired of British history written by men, about men, then Philippa Gregory has the book for you. Normal Women details the history of England from a feminist lens, building out the full spectrum as it always should have been.

“An amazing read.” —The Los Angeles Times

The #1 New York Times bestselling historical novelist delivers her magnum opus—a landmark work of feminist nonfiction that radically redefines our understanding of the extraordinary roles ordinary women played throughout British history.

AN INDIE BESTSELLER

Did you know that there are more penises than women in the Bayeux Tapestry? That the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381 was started and propelled by women who were 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 of women's history, she tells the story of England over 900 years, for the very first time placing women—some fifty per cent of the population—center stage.

Using research skills honed in her work as one of our foremost historical novelists, Gregory trawled through court records, newspapers, and journals to find:

  • highwaywomen
  • beggars
  • murderers
  • brides
  • housewives
  • pirates
  • female husbands
  • hermits

The “normal women” you will meet in these 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. They committed crimes or treason, worshipped many gods, cooked and nursed, invented things, and rioted. A lot.

A landmark work of social history, scholarship, and storytelling, Normal Women chronicles centuries of social and cultural change—from 1066 to modern times—powered by the determination, persistence, and effectiveness of women.

*INCLUDES ILLUSTRATIONS THROUGHOUT AND A FULL-COLOR INSERT*

“An expansive, inclusive and elegantly woven nonfiction account of the lives of women in England from the Norman Conquest to the modern day. To describe it as merely a retelling is to undermine a core principle: This is a history of women in England, yes, but it is also a history of England, full stop. . . . At more than 500 pages, with extensive endnotes and a 30-page index, Normal Women is a behemoth you may be inclined to skim, until you realize you’re actually luxuriating in every word.” —The New York Times


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780063304321
Publisher: HarperCollins
Publication date: 02/27/2024
Pages: 688
Product dimensions: 6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.60(d)
Age Range: 12 - 16 Years

About the Author

About The Author

Philippa Gregory is the author of many New York Times bestselling novels, including The Other Boleyn Girl and The White Queen, as well as the Wideacre and Fairmile series, and the landmark nonfiction work Normal Women. She lives in England.

Hometown:

Yorkshire, England

Date of Birth:

January 9, 1954

Place of Birth:

Nairobi, Kenya, East Africa

Education:

B.A. in history, Sussex University, 1982; Ph.D., 18th-century popular fiction, Edinburgh, 1984
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