Poet, Mystic, Widow, Wife

This is a fascinating book about four medieval women - each a heroine in her own way - and it tells us so much about their world, and about our own. A welcome addition to medieval history, giving us a window into the lives of women that many people only know by name, if at all. What jumps off the page is the liveliness of the women, their passion, their courage and their own way of being a woman. * Philippa Gregory, author of The Other Boleyn Girl and Normal Women * Beautifully written and brilliantly observed, Hetta Howes unlocks the secrets of women’s lives, so often silent and inconspicuous in our histories, and shows us the medieval world as we’ve never seen it before. Full of surprises and packed with thrilling details, this is an important, eye-opening book. * Alice Loxton, author of Eighteen: A History of Britain in 18 Young Lives and Uproar! * Hetta Howes unflinchingly explores the trials medieval women faced and, importantly, how they fought back. * Tabitha Stanmore, author of Cunning Folk: Life in the Era of Practical Magic * Hetta Howes approaches four pathbreaking women writers much as they approached medieval society's limitations on them: with narrative agency, innovation, and even a touch of irreverence. Her witty and amusing portrait reveals some astonishing truths: that these medieval women not only existed and held their own--but that their experiences of life, marriage, career, sex, and society are remarkably akin to our own. * Vanessa 'V.M.' Braganza, currently at work on her first trade book, The Secret-Seekers: A Detective's Quest to Decipher the Renaissance * With expert knowledge and manifest enthusiasm, Howes uses four very different women as jumping-off points from which to discuss medieval women’s lifespan and experiences, from marriage and love, to work and friendship, to power, achievement, and death. Engaging, authoritative, and original. * Carolyne Larrington, Emerita Professor in Medieval European Literature, University of Oxford and author of The Land of the Green Man * This meticulously researched book makes visible so much that popular models of medieval life have found inconvenient or uninteresting to accommodate: female friendship, lesbianism, pregnancy support, and above all the endless negotiations, compromises and sleights-of-hand which women must constantly enact to survive, then as now. * Noreen Masud, author of A Flat Place - shortlisted for the Women’s Prize * A spirited, sparky, and brisk account. With verve and brio, Howes takes the reader into medieval society via some of its most eloquent women, making them approachable and relevant to the world today. * Anthony Bale, author of A Travel Guide to the Middle Ages: The World Through Medieval Eyes * A spectacular, vivid and ground-breaking work of history that takes us into the minds and lives of medieval women. Superb writing from this author, a very eye catching cover, this book will go far, 5 stars. Blindingly excellent ... This book should come with a disclaimer as once you start reading you aren’t going to want to walk away. * NetGalley review * Hetta Howes shines a bright spotlight on four women from the Middle Ages who have been almost forgotten or ignored for far too long. * NetGalley review * In this engrossing début work, medieval historian Howes explores the lives of four women. * The Bookseller's Buyers Guide Seasonal Highlights * Vivid, deeply researched, and addictively readable, Hetta Howes' Poet, Mystic, Widow, Wife offers a rich, nuanced picture of medieval women's lives. Drawing on a range of historical archives and literary works, Howes shows us how women thrived in a patriarchal world as writers, visionaries, and entrepreneurs. * Irina Dumitrescu * Weaving together detail from a huge range of European narratives and documentary sources, Hetta Howes brilliantly illuminates the lives of four medieval women whose experiences prompted writings of different kinds. Her imaginative engagement with these women’s worlds, with their circumstances and predicaments, makes for a spirited commentary on the continuities and fractures in women’s history. * Julia Boffey, Professor Emerita of Medieval Studies, Queen Mary University, London *