Stories about royal women form some of our most foundational myths about femininity, and yet their legacies have been almost entirely constructed by the words and images created by men. This book leads us deep into a world of queens, empresses, princesses, mistresses and courtiers, uncovering how their ambitions were shaped, celebrated and often thwarted, […]
The women who plotted aircraft battles in the Siege of Malta
Tracy Cook’s debut novel was inspired by the women who plotted aircraft battles during the Siege of Malta – the only civilians to do such work during the Second World War. Though they’re largely forgotten now, their highly-skilled work helped the RAF to defend the island against German and Italian forces in the early 1940s. […]
Lionessheart by Catherine Hanley
The sons of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine have been the subject of much historical attention, but their daughters have been curiously overlooked. The youngest of them, Joanna, led a particularly extraordinary life full of adventure and danger – and not a little controversy – that was more than a match for those of […]
Silk and the Sword: The Women of the Norman Conquest by Sharon Bennett Connolly
The momentous events of 1066, the story of invasion, battle and conquest, are well known. But what of the women? Harold II of England had been with Edith Swanneck for twenty years but in 1066, in order to strengthen his hold on the throne, he married Ealdgyth, sister of two earls. William of Normandy’s Duchess, […]
Medieval women’s family lives
Medieval women’s family lives varied widely, as did the work they carried out daily. Rank in society was a factor, as was whether they lived in a town or the country, but the most important influence on their lives was their position in a family, the historian Catherine Hanley explains. Family was the concept and […]
The Family Lives of Medieval Women by Catherine Hanley
Women in the Middle Ages led fascinating and often wildly differing everyday lives, depending on their social class and family situation. Yet their wealth of experience has long been obscured and overshadowed by the experiences of men, with history books often relegating women to a single, catch-all chapter, as if their lives formed a unified […]
Can books save lives?
A pioneering library was set up at Endell Street Military Hospital during the First World War. There, the women who ran the hospital used reading as therapy for the damaged soldiers. Louise Morrish writes about the library, which inspired her latest novel, and asks: can books save lives? If we could step back in time, […]
Princesses of the Early Middle Ages by Sharon Bennett Connolly
Daughters of kings were often used to seal treaty alliances and forge peace with England’s enemies. This book explores the lives of these young women, how they followed the stereotype, and how they sometimes managed to escape it. It looks at the world they lived in, and how their lives and marriages were affected by […]