In this ambitious and groundbreaking book, Philippa Gregory tells the story of England over 900 years, for the very first time placing women --- some 50 percent of the population --- center stage. Using research skills honed in her work as one of our foremost historical novelists, Gregory trawled through court records, newspapers and journals to find highwaywomen and beggars, murderers and brides, housewives and pirates, female husbands and hermits. The “normal women” you will meet in these pages went to war, plowed the fields, campaigned, wrote and loved. They rode in jousts, flew Spitfires, issued their own currency, and built ships, corn mills and houses. They committed crimes or treason, worshipped many gods, cooked and nursed, invented things and rioted. A lot.

In this ambitious and groundbreaking book, Philippa Gregory tells the story of England over 900 years, for the very first time placing women --- some 50 percent of the population --- center stage. Using research skills honed in her work as one of our foremost historical novelists, Gregory trawled through court records, newspapers and journals to find highwaywomen and beggars, murderers and brides, housewives and pirates, female husbands and hermits. The “normal women” you will meet in these pages went to war, plowed the fields, campaigned, wrote and loved. They rode in jousts, flew Spitfires, issued their own currency, and built ships, corn mills and houses. They committed crimes or treason, worshipped many gods, cooked and nursed, invented things and rioted. A lot.

The #1 New York Times bestselling historical novelist delivers her magnum opus --- a landmark work of feminist nonfiction that radically redefines our understanding of the extraordinary roles ordinary women played throughout British history and “should be included in every history lesson” (Glamour UK).

Did you know that there are more penises than women in the Bayeux Tapestry? That the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381 was started and propelled by women who were 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 groundbreaking book, she tells the story of England over 900 years, for the very first time placing women --- some 50 percent of the population --- center stage.

Using research skills honed in her work as one of our foremost historical novelists, Gregory trawled through court records, newspapers and journals to find highwaywomen and beggars, murderers and brides, housewives and pirates, female husbands and hermits. The “normal women” you will meet in these 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. They committed crimes or treason, worshipped many gods, cooked and nursed, invented things and rioted. A lot.

A landmark work of scholarship and storytelling, NORMAL WOMEN chronicles centuries of social and cultural change --- from 1066 to modern times --- powered by the determination, persistence and effectiveness of women.

Audiobook available; read by Clare Corbett, Tania Rodrigues, Nneka Okoye, James Goode and Joe Jameson

For reasons of her own, Hero Tojosoa accepts an invitation she was half expected to decline and finds herself in Prague on a bachelorette weekend hosted by her estranged friend, Sofie. Little does she know she has arrived in a city with a penchant for playing tricks on the unsuspecting. A book Hero has brought with her seems to be warping her mind: the text changes depending on when it’s being read and who’s doing the reading, revealing startling new stories of fictional Praguers past and present. Uninvited companions appear at bachelorette activities and at city landmarks, offering opinions, humor and even a taste of treachery. When a third woman from Hero and Sofie’s past appears unexpectedly, the tensions between the friends’ different accounts of the past reach a new level.

For reasons of her own, Hero Tojosoa accepts an invitation she was half expected to decline and finds herself in Prague on a bachelorette weekend hosted by her estranged friend, Sofie. Little does she know she has arrived in a city with a penchant for playing tricks on the unsuspecting. A book Hero has brought with her seems to be warping her mind: the text changes depending on when it’s being read and who’s doing the reading, revealing startling new stories of fictional Praguers past and present. Uninvited companions appear at bachelorette activities and at city landmarks, offering opinions, humor and even a taste of treachery. When a third woman from Hero and Sofie’s past appears unexpectedly, the tensions between the friends’ different accounts of the past reach a new level.

The prize-winning, bestselling author of PEACES and GINGERBREAD returns with a novel about competitive friendship, the elastic boundaries of storytelling, and the meddling influence of a city called Prague.

In Helen Oyeyemi’s joyous new novel, the Czech capital is a living thing --- one that can let you in or spit you out.

For reasons of her own, Hero Tojosoa accepts an invitation she was half expected to decline and finds herself in Prague on a bachelorette weekend hosted by her estranged friend, Sofie. Little does she know she’s arrived in a city with a penchant for playing tricks on the unsuspecting. A book Hero has brought with her seems to be warping her mind: the text changes depending on when it’s being read and who’s doing the reading, revealing startling new stories of fictional Praguers past and present. Uninvited companions appear at bachelorette activities and at city landmarks, offering opinions, humor and even a taste of treachery. When a third woman from Hero and Sofie’s past appears unexpectedly, the tensions between the friends’ different accounts of the past reach a new level.

An adventurous, kaleidoscopic novel, PARASOL AGAINST THE AXE considers the lines between illusion and delusion, fact and interpretation, and weighs the risks of attaching too firmly to the stories of a place, or a person, or a shared history. How much is a tale influenced by its reader, or vice versa? And finally, in a battle between friends, is it better to be the parasol or the axe?

Audiobook available, read by Dorje Swallow