Presence

A work of remarkable archival scholarship, and a radical recovery of the history of female embodiment. As I read, the closeness of these pre-modern women was uncanny and revelatory: their voices rang in my ears, and in their words I encountered things I had felt and experienced. Extraordinary!

Harriet Baker, author of Rural Hours

A magnificent work of history. Erin Maglaque uncovers the inner thoughts of ordinary women who lived centuries years ago and lets us hear their voices as if they were alive with us now. And the things they have to tell us — about desire, about childcare, about sleep, sleeplessness, and death — have rarely seemed so urgent. Breathtaking, intimate, and moving, this is how history should be written in the future.

Peter Jones, author of Self-Help from the Middle Ages

[A] soulful, moving, sometimes cacophonous account of European women’s experiences and interior lives from about 1500 to 1800... Riveting

Mattie Kahn, New York Times

Impassioned and deeply thoughtful, Presence taps into the feelings, desires and fears of women in the past. It left me pondering my own physical experiences. Illuminating and brave.

Alison Light, author of Common People

A wonderful history... Intimate, fascinating and touching

Ian Mortimer, author of The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England

An immersive, revelatory, and astonishing book about women, told through the distinct bodily experiences that punctuate our lives, and the history we’ve rarely been taught. Beautifully written and acutely insightful, Presence connects us to ourselves, our foremothers, and each other.

Sophie Gilbert, author of Girl on Girl

A landmark book... She brings these mysterious shadowy figures to life and it's as if we hear their voices for the first time

Celia Paul, author of Self-Portrait

Has all the rigour of a piece of scholarly research, and none of the trappings of the academy. It's precise, fine-tuned... and so deliciously free to move

Helen Jukes, author of Mother Animal

In Presence, Erin Maglaque does something radical, not only dissolving the obsolete Cartesian divide – which insists on separating thoughts and feelings – but daring to honour her own bodily truths as worthy of record. An important, original contribution to modern feminist writing about the body.

Gabriel Weston, author of Alive