Femina

Revelatory... Ramirez shows again and again that dark age Europe was a far more various place than we like to believe * Kathryn Hughes, The Guardian *
One of Femina's greatest strengths is that it is not just a collection of medieval heroines, although there are inspirational stories aplenty in its pages, but also a readable and wide-ranging account of the Middle Ages - with the women put back in - that forces us to look at familiar stories in new ways * The Sunday Times *
It's about time these stories had a wider audience. They've been waiting long enough. * Spectator *
Passionate, provocative and brilliant, this book is a firecracker somehow captured between two covers * Lucy Worsley, bestselling author of Agatha Christie: A Very Elusive Woman *
Beautifully written, wonderfully free-ranging and gloriously original, Femina makes us look into the mists of history in new, exciting and provocative ways. A joyous read * Peter Frankopan, bestselling author of The Silk Roads *
Absolutely brilliant and highly recommended * Caitlin Moran, bestselling author of How To Be a Woman *
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 *
The women of the Middle Ages, so often silent and inconspicuous in our histories, find voice, agency and justice in this brilliant book * Alice Roberts, bestselling author of Ancestors:A prehistory of Britain in seven burials *
Femina is an important addition to our understanding of a period still - mistakenly - thought to have excluded women from positions of power and significance. Femina skillfully brings out from the shadows the lives of women who ruled, fought, traded, created, and inspired * Cat Jarman, bestselling author of River Kings: A New History of Vikings from Scandinavia to the Silk Roads *
Spellbinding, passionate, gripping and magnificently fresh in tone, boldly wide in range, elegantly written, deeply researched, Femina is a ground-breaking history of the Middle Ages. It brings the world to life with women at its very heart, centre stage where they belong. What a delight. * Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of Jerusalem: The Biography *