Whether fact or fiction, every story needs an inciting incident. For Philippa Gregory, in the case of Normal Women: 900 Years of Making History, it was the realisation that there were more penises (93) than women (5) embroidered on the Bayeux Tapestry.
‘There are five,’ says the renowned author in some indignation. Her new book of historical non-fiction re-claiming women’s lives – a passion project that has taken almost a decade to complete – begins with the Norman Conquest in 1066. ‘One is mourning the death of her husband. Four women are being touched or sexually abused – one is running away from a burning building with her child. That’s literally where we start. It was embroidered by the women of England and if that’s what the Normans commanded it tells you everything about how the Normans saw themselves and women.’
Lively, angry, informed and fascinating, Normal Women turns the accepted narrative that only occasionally have women throughout history stepped into ‘notable’ or ‘exceptional’ roles on its head. The seeds of it were sown when the historian and author of historical fiction was writing her Tudor novels, which include the global bestseller, The Other Boleyn Girl.
‘I was really struck by writing the Tudor series, people would say, how did you find
