Listen free for 30 days
Listen with offer
-
Normal Women
- 900 Years of Making History
- Narrated by: Clare Corbett, Tania Rodrigues, Nneka Okoye, James Goode, Joe Jameson, Philippa Gregory
- Length: 27 hrs and 17 mins
Failed to add items
Add to basket failed.
Add to wishlist failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
99p for the first 3 months
Normal Women
Buy Now for £31.99
No valid payment method on file.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
Summary
A NEW STATESMEN BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023
FROM THE MULTI-MILLION BESTSELLING HISTORICAL NOVELIST COMES THE CULMINATION OF HER LIFE’S WORK
- Did you know that there are more penises than women in the Bayeux Tapestry?
- That the Peasant’s Revolt was started and propelled by women, protesting a tax on women?
- Or that celebrated naturalist Charles Darwin believed not just that women were naturally inferior to men but that they’d evolve to become ever more inferior?
These are just a few of the startling findings you will learn from reading Philippa Gregory’s Normal Women. In this ambitious and ground-breaking book, she tells the story of our nation over 900 years, but for the very first time women – some fifty per cent of the population – are no longer invisible in this history of England, but are at its beating heart.
Using research skills honed in her work as one of our foremost historical novelists, Gregory trawled through court records to find highway women, beggars and shepherdesses, through newspapers and diaries to find murderers and brides, housewives and pirates, female husbands and hermits. The ‘normal women’ you will meet in her pages went to war, ploughed the fields, campaigned, wrote, and loved. They rode in jousts, flew Spitfires, issued their own currency and built ships, corn mills and houses as part of their everyday lives They committed crimes, or treason, worshipped many gods, cooked and nursed, invented things and rioted. A lot. They built our society to be as diverse and varied as the women themselves. They are there in the archives – if you look – and they made our history.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
Critic reviews
‘A genuinely new history of our nation’ DAN JONES
‘Radically reframes our national story’ OBSERVER
‘This celebration of women is a triumph of popular history’ SPECTATOR
More from the same
What listeners say about Normal Women
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance3 out of 5 stars
-
Story4 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 11-12-23
knowledge
it kept me interested all the way through and made me think a very good book
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Aletta E F Theron
- 20-12-23
Incredibly interesting
A wonderful challenge of the handed-down, male-dominated history. I thoroughly enjoyed this. Every woman should read this.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- PPG
- 05-11-23
Powerful Herstory of Britain
Brilliant and thought provoking.
Essential reading shows progress of women but how far we still need to go, especially with safety and empowerment.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- M R Mackenzie
- 01-01-24
The amazingly thorough research and details, some shocking.
Quite unbelievable facts about women. This book gives me strength and insight into my rights as a woman. Thank you Philippa Gregory.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- SnowLady
- 03-12-23
Great read
Highly informative and well structured. Taking the reader on a fascinating journey through time from womens perspective gives and stories.
Loved it.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Liz Parsons
- 22-11-23
Absolutely fascinating
Philippa Gregory explores the history of women over the past 900 years. Most eye opening is the history of the bread winner’s wage - we still have a long way to go to obtain equality, but the root of it goes back a lot further than I realised. Women have been repressed for centuries by men fearful of natural strength. Everyone should listen to this book.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars
-
Performance3 out of 5 stars
-
Story4 out of 5 stars
- joan parsons
- 08-01-24
Some repetition in the recording but interesting nonetheless
I think there might have been some mistakes in the recording as there was a lot of repetition, some immediately the repeating the same phrases but also some segments that are repetitious.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Sue
- 25-04-24
Excellent research
Having co-ordinated a small feminist project after the Yorkshire Ripper I applaud Phillipa for this excellent piece of work. If only it was in the curriculum of schools!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 27-12-23
Long time coming .. finally, a full history about the female population!
Thank you Philippa Gregory for taking 10 years to research and write this full, fascinating & factual history about woman.
A staggering achievement!
This history book shows us the amazing ‘ordinary lives’ and achievements of woman for 900 years.
Much of it is quite hard to hear/read especially as men start in the 17th century, “the enlightenment” to crush & belittle woman.
They weren’t crushed, while it took 300 plus years to gain back ground & it continues today, this books shows loud & clear what everyone actually knows, is that woman have always been and are remarkable in the very normality of their place in the world.
If only men hadn’t been fearful of woman, if only men & woman had always been equal parts of humanity, each with a part to play in the world .. but now I’m entering the realms of fiction!!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 05-12-23
An historical masterpiece
No one has encapsulated the history of women in such a thorough, balanced, easy to listen to way. It needs to be heard in order to change the lives of women for future generations.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful