Femina

Janina Ramirez is a born storyteller, and in Femina she is at the peak of her powers. This is bravura narrative history underpinned by passionate advocacy for the women whom medieval history has too often ignored or overlooked. Femina is essential reading for anyone who is interested in the Middle Ages and its place in the modern mind * Dan Jones, bestselling author of The Plantagenets and Powers and Thrones * This is a passionate, energetic, hugely enjoyable and brilliantly observed book. Both a plea for a new way of thinking about history and a commitment to putting women's lives back at the heart of things, I read it in one sitting. Magnificent. * Kate Mosse, bestselling author of Labyrinth * Janina Ramirez is a passionate voice for women in history. With this bold and masterful book, she salvages women's stories from the dark corners into which they have been pushed, and brilliantly restores them to the centre of the historical narrative where they have always belonged * Hallie Rubenhold, author of The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper * Passionate, provocative and brilliant, this book is a firecracker somehow captured between two covers * Lucy Worsley, author of Jane Austen at Home * Inventive, informative, surprising - this book is a revelation! Seeing so many remarkable women creating so much powerful history rewrites our entire sense of the medieval past * Waldemar Januszczak * As both writer and broadcaster, Dr Janina Ramirez radiates tremendous passion for her subject. To spend time in her company is to soon find yourself intoxicated by the vast drama of human history, with all its far-off wonders, frustrating mysteries, and tantalising echoes that still resonate in our modern world * Greg Jenner, author of Ask a Historian and Dead Famous: An Unexpected History of Celebrity * Gripping, incisive, brilliant, Janina Ramirez opens a door into hidden worlds, the secrets of women's lives. She is a detective and guide on this, an eye-opening, wonderful journey into the power, beauty and reality of early women's experiences * Kate Williams, author of England's Mistress: The Infamous Life of Emma Hamilton *