The popular phrase “well-behaved women seldom make history” now has a lore of its own. The quote itself should be attributed not – as internet memes might suggest – to Marilyn Monroe or Gloria Steinem, but to historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, who used it in a 1976 academic article that explored pious women who had escaped historical attention. Philippa Gregory's latest book, then, joins a pantheon of works that have reinstated women – fierce, complicated, riotous, obedient, rebellious, heroic, normal women – in our understanding of how our world was made.
The book begins in 1066, setting out how the Norman invasion transformed the lives of England's women. Changes to religion, law and the transfer of land largely altered women's situations for the worse. Women persevered, though – what choice…
