A New History of the Middle Ages, Through the Women Written Out of It

Femina

A bestselling, groundbreaking reappraisal of medieval femininity, revealing why women have been written out of history, and why it matters, by Oxford historian Janina Ramirez.

Revelatory... Ramirez shows again and again that dark age Europe was a far more various place than we like to believe

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

It's about time these stories had a wider audience. They've been waiting long enough.

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

This is a passionate, energetic, hugely enjoyable and brilliantly observed book.  Both a plea for a new way of thinking about history and a commitment to putting women's lives back at the heart of things, I read it in one sitting. Magnificent.

Kate Mosse, bestselling author of Labyrinth

Janina Ramirez is a passionate voice for women in history. With this bold and masterful book, she salvages women's stories from the dark corners into which they have been pushed, and brilliantly restores them to the centre of the historical narrative where they have always belonged

Hallie Rubenhold, bestselling author of The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper

A compelling and breathtaking account of the women whose stories have been lost, ignored, or silenced in history. As important as it is remarkable

Susie Dent, bestselling author of Word Perfect

Challenging, inclusive and riveting, Janina Ramirez's book is breaking new grounds. This is a history as you've never read before. A unique page turner

Olivette Otele, author of African Europeans: An Untold History

Inventive, informative, surprising - this book is a revelation! Seeing so many remarkable women creating so much powerful history rewrites our entire sense of the medieval past

Waldemar Januszczak, Chief Art Critic, Sunday Times

As both writer and broadcaster, Dr Janina Ramirez radiates tremendous passion for her subject. To spend time in her company is to soon find yourself intoxicated by the vast drama of human history, with all its far-off wonders, frustrating mysteries, and tantalising echoes that still resonate in our modern world

Greg Jenner, author of Ask a Historian and Dead Famous: An Unexpected History of Celebrity

Gripping, incisive, brilliant, Janina Ramirez opens a door into hidden worlds, the secrets of women's lives. She is a detective and guide on this, an eye-opening, wonderful journey into the power, beauty and reality of early women's experiences

Kate Williams, author of England's Mistress: The Infamous Life of Emma Hamilton

Women have been consistently written out of our English history, transformed into ciphers, handmaidens, shadows. Janina Ramirez brings them back out into the light - and they glow with agency, power and passion

Alice Roberts, author of Ancestors: A prehistory of Britain in seven burials

Professor Janina Ramirez is a Sunday Times bestselling author, Oxford lecturer, BBC broadcaster and researcher. She is Director of Studies for History of Art at Harris Manchester College, University of Oxford, and Visiting Professor in Medieval Studies at the University of Lincoln. She has published widely on medieval history, art and literature, has written both fiction and non-fiction for adults and younger readers, and has taught and researched across a broad chronological sweep, covering everything from the sculptures of antiquity to post-modern architecture. She has also written and presented documentaries across the world for over 15 years. She is Lifelong President of Gloucester History Festival, and Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, Royal Society of Arts, Universities of York and Gloucestershire and City Lit. Her book Femina was an instant Sunday Times bestseller.

THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 
LONGLISTED FOR THE CUNDILL HISTORY PRIZE 
 
'Revelatory' GUARDIAN 
 
'A firecracker somehow captured between two covers' LUCY WORSLEY 
 
An instant bestseller and one of the most celebrated history books of the year, Femina reveals the power and influence of medieval women who have been written out of our history. From royalty and religion to fame and fury, see the medieval world - and the women erased from it - with fresh eyes. 
 
'Absolutely brilliant and highly recommended' CAITLIN MORAN 
 
'Femina is a ground-breaking history of the Middle Ages' SIMON SEBAG MONTEFIORE 
 
The instant Sunday Times bestseller, May 2023

Power, Passion and Politics in Anglo-Saxon England

The Private Lives of the Saints

What a wonderful book this is. Like the interlace stonework on an Anglo-Saxon cross, Janina Ramirez's themes are interwoven with a consummate skill.

Ramirez blasts a powerful spotlight into the so-called Dark Ages and reveals a vibrant world, awash with colour and character.

Those who were recast as saints achieved a superhuman status, their real lives often obscured by hagiographies rich with legends of miracle-working from beyond the grave. Janina Ramirez's book portrays them historically – as living, breathing personalities within the world they knew, the places we have inherited. Her enthusiasm and instinct for relevance should welcome a broad new audience to medieval Church history.

From the Sunday Times bestselling author of Femina 
'Ramirez blasts a powerful spotlight into the so-called Dark Ages' - Dan Snow 
 
Skulduggery, power struggles and politics, The Private Lives of the Saints offers an original and fascinating re-examination of life in Anglo-Saxon England. Taking them down from the clouds of their heavenly status, Sunday Times bestselling author and renowned Oxford historian Dr Janina Ramirez explores the real lives of the legendary, seminal saints. 
 
This landmark book provides a unique and captivating new lens through which to explore the rich history of the Dark Ages.

A Ladybird Expert Book

Beowulf

Part of the ALL-NEW LADYBIRD EXPERT SERIES 
 
'This accessible illustrated guide is a great introduction to the story, its origins and its enduring legacy' BBC HISTORY 
 
- Which is more terrifying - a monster or its mother? 
- Why did Berserkers run naked into battle? 
- How was the story of Beowulf almost lost forever? 
 
PLUNGE into the adventures of Beowulf, the 6th Century hero who defeated the monster Grendel, became king of his people, and slayed a tremendous dragon. Surviving in a single, burnt manuscript, Beowulf continues to entrance readers and inspire major works of fantasy today. 
 
WARRIORS. MONSTERS. DRAGONS. GOLD. 
 
Janina Ramirez's Beowulf is an accessible and authoritative guide to the spellbinding world and daring feats of a poem remembered through the centuries.

This accessible illustrated guide is a great introduction to the story, its origins and its enduring legacy

The artwork is gloriously retro, echoing the original Ladybird house style but containing completely up to date information.

Dr Janina Ramirez is a presenter, lecturer and researcher, specialising in interpreting symbols and examining art works within their historical context. She is Course Director for the Undergraduate Certificate and Diploma in History of Art at the Department for Continuing Education, Oxford University. She has published widely on medieval art and literature, and has taught and researched across a broad chronological sweep, covering everything from the sculptures of antiquity to post-modern architecture. She has also written and presented a number of documentaries for BBC4 and Radio Four, and is a regular guest presenter of Front Row. She is a passionate and enthused academic driven by a desire to share ideas.

Part of the ALL-NEW LADYBIRD EXPERT SERIES 
 
- Which is more terrifying - a monster or its mother? 
- Why did Berserkers run naked into battle? 
- How was the story of Beowulf almost lost forever? 
 
PLUNGE into the adventures of Beowulf, the 6th Century hero who defeated the monster Grendel, became king of his people, and slayed a tremendous dragon. Surviving in a single, burnt manuscript, Beowulf continues to entrance readers and inspire major works of fantasy today. 
 
WARRIORS. MONSTERS. DRAGONS. GOLD. 
 
Janina Ramirez's Beowulf is an accessible and authoritative guide to the spellbinding world and daring feats of a poem remembered through the centuries.

Janina Ramirez

Janina Ramirez fearlessly deconstructs the dangerous historical myths and legends that have been shameless created to stoke division and hatred, finding complexity, truth and inspiration in this stunning - and shockingly relevant - new analysis of medieval history

This is a history like no other, a top-down story of nationhood and mythology, a dazzling assessment of the past through the lens of the present and a rallying cry for the importance of history. Most of all, it's a plea to consider the real flesh-and-blood women who made the world rather than their sanitised, mythologised counterparts. A fabulous, invigorating and beguiling read

Kate Mosse, author of LABYRINTH and WARRIOR QUEENS & QUIET REVOLUTIONARIES

Sensational! Janina Ramirez is writing women back into history one by one

Breathtaking and urgent. From dismantling assumptions about legendary women's assigned roles as mothers of nations to re-instating them as powerful agents of change, Ramirez expands our understanding of womanhood. This book is a tour de force

Olivette Otele, author of AFRICAN EUROPEANS

A brilliant concept, conveyed with that dynamo mix: academic authority and storytelling pizzaz!

The Real Women Behind the Myths That Shaped Europe

From the bestselling author of FEMINA, a brilliant reappraisal of the medieval women whose lives have been exploited over centuries for political, nation-building ends. 
 
In LEGENDA, bestselling historian Professor Janina Ramirez peels back the layers of time to reveal how the lives of women have been co-opted by those intent on crafting national identities. Their names are well known, and summaries of their achievements have been recited in classrooms for decades, but medieval women like Joan of Arc, Lady Godiva and Isabella of Castile have been misrepresented, their stories twisted and weaponised. Meanwhile, ground-breaking 18th- and 19th-century women who blazed a trail through revolutionary Europe have been forgotten, their legacies too easily dismissed or ignored. 
 
Questioning established narratives and searching for the real women behind the legends, Ramirez interrogates what defines a nation and who gets to build it, shining a light on how history is so often hijacked to serve the ideological and political interests of the present. 
 
PRAISE FOR JANINA RAMIREZ: 
'Ramirez blasts a powerful spotlight into the so-called Dark Ages and reveals a vibrant world, awash with colour and character' DAN SNOW 
 
'Like the interlace stonework on an Anglo-Saxon cross, Janina Ramirez's themes are interwoven with a conssumate skill' TOM HOLLAND 
 
'Passionate, provocative and brilliant' LUCY WORSLEY 
 
'Janina Ramirez is a born storyteller . . . This is bravura narrative history underpinned by passionate advocacy for the women whom medieval history has too often ignored or overlooked' DAN JONES 
 
'Skillfully brings out from the shadows the lives of women who ruled, fought, traded, created, and inspired' CAT JARMAN 
 
'Absolutely brilliant and highly recommended' CAITLIN MORAN

Janina Ramirez

Praise for Legenda

Janina Ramirez fearlessly deconstructs the dangerous historical myths and legends that have been shameless created to stoke division and hatred, finding complexity, truth and inspiration in this stunning - ...

This is a history like no other, a top-down story of nationhood and mythology, a dazzling assessment of the past through the lens of the present and a rallying cry for the importance of history. Most o ...

Sensational! Janina Ramirez is writing women back into history one by one

Janina Ramirez fearlessly deconstructs the dangerous historical myths and legends that have been shameless created to stoke division and hatred, finding complexity, truth and inspiration in this stunning - ...

This is a history like no other, a top-down story of nationhood and mythology, a dazzling assessment of the past through the lens of the present and a rallying cry for the importance of history. Most o ...

Sensational! Janina Ramirez is writing women back into history one by one

Janina Ramirez fearlessly deconstructs the dangerous historical myths and legends that have been shameless created to stoke division and hatred, finding complexity, truth and inspiration in this stunning - ...

This is a history like no other, a top-down story of nationhood and mythology, a dazzling assessment of the past through the lens of the present and a rallying cry for the importance of history. Most o ...

Sensational! Janina Ramirez is writing women back into history one by one

Books by Janina Ramirez

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