Normal WomenNormal Women

"Did women do nothing to shape our country's culture and traditions during nine centuries of political turmoil, plague, famine, prosperity, religious reform and the rise of empire and industry? Philippa Gregory answers this question with accounts of female soldiers, guild widows, highwaywomen, pirates, miners and ship owners, international traders, theatre impresarios, runaway enslaved women, 'female husbands', social campaigners and rebels. These individuals, and the prejudice they faced, built our society to be as diverse and varied as the women themselves. This is not another book about three or four well-known heroines; it is a book about millions of women: those who left records and those who were 'hidden from history'. The 'normal women' you will meet in these pages rode in jousts, flew Spitfires, issued their own currency, and built ships, corn mills and houses as part of their everyday lives. They went to war, ploughed the fields, campaigned, wrote and loved. They committed crimes, or treason, worshipped many gods, cooked and nursed, invented things and rioted."--Back cover.