God's Own Gentlewoman

A riveting study, employing extensive use of archival sources to passionately paint a vivid and sympathetic account of everyday life in medieval England, as shown through one woman's eyes. An evocative triumph. * Nathen Amin, author of The House of Beaufort *
A movingly personal exploration of the life lived by a quietly remarkable woman during turbulent times more than five hundred years ago. With nuance, deep learning and insight, Diane Watt leads us through the landscapes of Norfolk past and present, bringing the medieval world into shimmering view. * Helen Castor, author of She-Wolves: The Women Who Ruled England Before Elizabeth *
Watt brings to beautifully-written life the story not only of Margaret Paston and her family - extracted from Margaret's own letters - but an entire richly-textured time and place that, until someone invents a time machine, could not be visited more vividly. * Nicola Griffith, author of Hild *
A fascinating and deeply moving encounter with medieval life as experienced by an intelligent, resourceful and extraordinarily canny woman. Using the letters that Margaret Paston wrote to her husband and wider family as stepping stones through the fifteenth century, Watt gives a powerful sense of what life was like for a middle-class woman, navigating her way through a time of political and social upheaval. Watt situates Margaret's life in the wider context of England's warring political factions, decimation by the Black Death and recurrent social unrest, and shows us how Margaret skillfully secured and defended her family's good name, material wealth and social status. Watt braids this story with her own pilgrimage to places of importance to Margaret, from churches to prisons, manor houses to shrines, and shows how much we have in common with Margaret, who aspired and struggled, loved and grieved more than five hundred years ago, yet whose story still moves us today. * Victoria McKenzie, author of For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy On My Little Pain *
In God's Own Gentlewoman, Watt takes us by the hand andleads us across the flat marshy landscapes of East Anglia into the past. Focusing on apparently tiny details from the Paston letters - dresses, jewellery, favourite poems - she illuminates not just one family's loves and losses, but a society convulsed by plague and war as the Middle Ages die away and a new world struggles to emerge. * Helena Kelly, author of The Life and Lies of Charles Dickens *
Immaculately researched with consummate skill, expressed with perfect lucidity ... God's Own Gentlewomanvividly evokes the world of medieval England through the experience of a woman * Anne O'Brien, author of A Court of Betrayal *
The world of the Pastons was in some ways not so different from our own. Margaret's captivating story reveals a line of impressive women who held their own in a complex world of intrigue and politics, fashion and business, violence and love. * Marion Turner, author of The Wife of Bath: A Biography *
Watt presents Margaret as a strong, capable individual, but also highlights the double standards that inhibited medieval women ... An engaging introduction to medieval life, as seen through the eyes of a fascinating woman. * Times Literary Supplement *
The greatest danger for this book was always going to be that Watt's abundant scholarly expertise would overwhelm a narrative aimed at a general audience, but happily this is not the case. The reading experience is pleasingly like watching a play: Watt steps forward to explain the context and provide a framing device before retreating to the wings to leave Margaret in the limelight as she speaks in her own vibrant voice. The book is, incidentally, a cracking tourist guide to Norfolk. * History Today *