Poet, Mystic, Widow, Wife: The Extraordinary Lives of Medieval Women
By Hetta Howes

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...'and PHILIPPA GREGORY, author ofand The Other Boleyn Girland andand Normal Women'Brilliantly revealing'and Observer'A celebration of female ambition and endeavour... enormous fun'and The Sunday TimesA 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.'and ALICE LOXTON, author ofand Eighteenand andand Uproar!'This meticulously researched book makes visible so much that popular models of medieval life have found inconvenient or uninteresting to accommodate'and NOREEN MASUD, author ofand A Flat Placeand - shortlisted for Women's Prize'Hetta Howes unflinchingly explores the trials medieval women faced and, importantly, how they fought back.'and TABITHA STANMORE, author ofand Cunning Folk: Life in the Era of Practical Magic'Vivid, deeply researched, and addictively readable'and IRINA DUMITRESCU, Professor of English Medieval Studies at the University of Bonn and co-host ofand Medieval LOLs'Spirited, sparky'and ANTHONY BALE, author ofand A Travel Guide to the Middle Ages