Normal Women Synopsis
The bestselling, critically acclaimed women's history from blockbuster author Philippa Gregory - adapted for teen readers!
Today, when we think of women of the past, we often think of the 1800s and 1900s - crinolines and stage coaches, bonnets and balls - a time when women were told they were naturally inferior to men, and must stay at home while men went out to work and have fun.
HUGE MISTAKE! There is so much more to women's history than bonnets and big dresses! Ordinary women have been doing extraordinary things FOR EVER - it just didn't make the history books (written by men!).
Join multi-award-winning author Philippa Gregory as she tells the story of ordinary English women, making history for 900 years. Meet farmers, highwaywomen, pirates, 'female husbands', slaves, soldiers, criminals, writers, inventors, rioters and more - protesting, working, playing, taking risks, getting rich (and getting even!). Their story is one of ingenuity, diversity, rebellion, survival - and sisterhood.
Illustrated throughout by award-winning printmaker Alexis Snell.
About This Edition
| ISBN: |
9780008622985 |
| Publication date: |
27th February 2025 |
| Author: |
Philippa Gregory |
| Publisher: |
Red Shed an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers |
| Format: |
Hardback |
| Pagination: |
277 pages |
| Primary Genre |
History
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| Other Genres: |
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Philippa Gregory Press Reviews
EARLY PRAISE FOR NORMAL WOMEN
‘Gregory’s theme is that although women have always been regarded as naturally inferior, in reality they make the world go round. They are the “healthy, strong, intelligent, spiritual and sexual” beings who did everything: nurtured families, farms and businesses, dug graves, birthed babies, brought in harvests, staffed factories, led riots and held communities together…Gregory has the novelist’s eye for the quirky and the vivid; the wryness of a confident narrator. Normal Womenis a lasting work of social history’
THE TIMES, BOOK OF THE WEEK
‘Gregory has always put women centre stage in her historical fiction but this new nonfiction work strives to restore them to their rightful place in history, and in so doing radically reframe our national story. To an impressive extent, it succeeds’
OBSERVER
‘Gregory places centre stage decades of scholarship in women’s history, a genre that started to become important only in the 1970s. Voices of the past can be heard through careful analysis of the fragments that do exist, and reading a document ‘against the grain’ of its author’s intention often reveals crucial details. This celebration of women is a triumph of popular history’
SPECTATOR
'Impressive and enjoyable . . . Here, the author uses all her bestseller skills to weave some kind of narrative and once again a splendid pace was maintained . . . With [this] stout, well-written [book] to hand, you could escape any family Christmas for an hour or two daily, going back in time and being utterly engrossed'
ANTONIA FRASER, NEW STATESMAN
‘Philippa Gregory has been working on this book for more than 10 years, women have been waiting for this gratifying and informative acknowledgment for a thousand’
ADELE PARKS, PLATINUM MAGAZINE
About Philippa Gregory
Philippa Gregory was an established historian and writer when she discovered her interest in the Tudor period and wrote the international bestseller The Other Boleyn Girl, which became a major film starring Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson. Several books later, she is looking at the family that precedes The Tudors in the The Cousins' War series, which was televised by the BBC as The White Queen.
Philippa's other great interest is the charity that she founded nearly twenty years ago: Gardens for The Gambia. She has raised funds and paid for several hundred wells for the primary schools of this poor African country. A former student of Sussex University, and a PhD and Alumna of the Year at Edinburgh University, her love of history is the hallmark of her writing. She lives with her family on a small farm in Yorkshire.
Author photo copyright: Johnny Ring.
More About Philippa Gregory
