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.
Adapted by Philippa Gregory from her best-selling, critically acclaimed Normal Women. This edition for younger readers has simplified, age-tailored content, delivered in bitesize sections, and is illustrated throughout by award-winning printmaker Alexis Snell.
Also available as an audio book - shortlisted for the British Audio Awards 2025!
PRAISE FOR NORMAL WOMEN (teen edition):
'Impressively researched, by turns inspiring and chilling ... brilliantly told' - Cressida Cowell
'This book is redemption for unsung female heroes. Prepare to feel aghast, proud and inspired' - Geri Halliwell
'Uplifting and empowering' - Edwina Dunn, The Female Lead
PRAISE FOR NORMAL WOMEN (main edition):
A NEW STATESMEN BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023
'A lasting work of social history' THE TIMES
'A genuinely new history of our nation' DAN JONES
'This celebration of women is a triumph of popular history' SPECTATOR
'Philippa Gregory uses all her bestseller skills to weave a narrative with pace' ANTONIA FRASER
'You'll lose count of the number of things you learn about women and their skewed place in history ... the book reframes the past ... an essential read' INDEPENDENT, FIVE-STAR REVIEW
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'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








