Showing titles in Women

Brought to you by Penguin. Award-winning classicist and historian Emily Hauser takes readers on an epic journey to uncover the astonishing true story of the real women behind ancient Greece’s greatest legends, and the real heroes of those ancient epics, Homer's Iliad and Odyssey . . . Contrary...

'A brilliant concept, executed with enviable elegance' Lucy Worsley 'A gem of a book. Thanks to Daisy Dunn's elegant and lively retelling of history, the women of the ancient world are restored to the centre of the story of classical antiquity. It was a joy to read.' Peter Frankopan Spanning 3...

Nazi Wives explores these women in detail for the first time, skilfully interweaving their stories through years of struggle, power, decline and destruction into the post-war twilight of denial and delusion. Goering, Goebbels, Himmler, Heydrich, Bormann, Hess - names synonymous with power and influence in the Third Reich. Perhaps less familiar are Carin, Emmy, Magda, Margaret, Lina, Gerda and Ilse.... These are the women behind the infamous men.

Brought to you by Penguin. When the gates of the last Magdalene Laundry closed in 1996, Ireland moved on. Or so it seemed. Following independence in 1922, Ireland began to chase a dream: to become the perfect Catholic nation. But purity had a price. Throughout the twentieth century, thousands of...

A spirited, poignant history of the seven daughters of the great Empress Maria Theresia—among them, Queen Marie Antoinette of France—tracing their lives as they balanced dynastic duty with personal ambition in a time of revolutionary cataclysm “Others make war; you, happy Austria, marry...

'Intriguing' – The Sunday Times 'A rousing read' – The Irish Times Renowned journalist Mona Chollet recasts the witch as a powerful role model: an emblem of strength, free to exist beyond the narrow limits society imposes on women. Taking three archetypes from historic witch hunts –...

A powerful new cultural history of sex written by one of the UK's most prominent historians. Sex, for the entirety of human history, has never been about reproduction. Statistically speaking, only one out of every one thousand sexual acts between a man and a woman will result in a pregnancy. And...

A heroine for our times, Etta Lemon campaigned for 50 years against the worldwide slaughter of birds for extravagantly feathered hats. Her legacy is the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (the RSPB), grown from an all-female pressure group of 1889 with the splendidly simple pledge: Wear No Feathers. Etta’s long battle against ‘murderous millinery’ triumphed with the Plumage Act of 1921 - but her legacy has been eclipsed by the more glamorous campaign for the vote, led by the elegantly plumed Emmeline Pankhurst.

Emma Watson’s Our Shared Shelf book club choice NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER All they wanted was the chance to shine. Be careful what you wish for… ‘The first thing we asked was, “Does this stuff hurt you?” And they said, “No.” The company said that it wasn’t dangerous, that we...

The festive season is approaching, and the Bomb Girls are determined to make this a year to remember. With Myrtle's health in decline, Edna's love life beginning to take flight and a shy new arrival in their midst, life is never quiet in Pendle. But Gladys, back from performing for the troops, is sullen and sad, and her friends are sure she is hiding something.

An astonishing—and astonishingly entertaining—behind-the-curtain history of Hollywood’s transformation over the past five decades as seen through the agency at the heart of it all, from the #1 bestselling co-author of Live from New York and Those Guys Have All the Fun. In 1975, five young...

Generations of children have fallen in love with the pioneer saga of the Ingalls family, of Pa and Ma, Laura and her sisters, and their loyal dog. Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House books have taught millions of Americans about frontier life, giving inspiration to many and in the process becoming icons of our national identity. Yet few realize that this best-selling series wandered far from the actual history of the Ingalls family and from what Laura herself understood to be central truths about pioneer life.

Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Nonfiction NATIONAL BESTSELLER A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF 2025 THE WASHINGTON POST’S 5 BEST NONFICTION BOOKS OF 2025 THE ATLANTIC’S 10 BEST BOOKS OF 2025 THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY'S BEST BOOKS OF 2025 TIME MAGAZINE’S BEST BOOKS...

SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2025: 'A masterfully written biography... inspiring and powerful' 'Gripping, moving and important' SIMON SEBAG MONTEFIORE 'Agent Zo is a triumph. Absolutely essential reading' HALLIE RUBENHOLD 'The astonishing story of an extraordinary woman'...

Throughout history, women have played integral roles in family, society, religion, government, war - in short, in all aspects of human civilization. Their contributions have often shaped history and shifted the axis of power for later generations of women. And yet, unearthing their stories from the historical record has often been a challenge. In Powerful Women of the Medieval World, Professor Dorsey Armstrong will introduce you to 10 amazing women who played vital roles in the Middle Ages.

Rome, 1659. Months after the plague has ravaged Rome, men are still dying in unnatural numbers, and rumour has it that their corpses do not decay as they should. The Papal authorities commission prosecutor Stefano Bracchi to investigate, telling him he will need considerable mettle to reach the truth. To the west of the Tiber, Girolama and her female friends are at work, helping other women with childbirths and foretelling their futures. Elsewhere in the city, a young wife, Anna, must find a way to escape her abusive husband. But in a city made by men for men, there are no easy paths out.

THE #2 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER ‘A gripping story of human frailty, love, loss, sadness, and tragedy’ Daily Mail She is the most public and least understood woman in Britain. Diana called her a Rottweiler. But spend two minutes with Camilla and you understand why Charles fell for her. The...

In August 2021 a women's creative writing group in Afghanistan shared news of political turmoil and the Fall of Kabul. These women were in the process of publishing a short-story collection when their world was turned upside down by the Taliban. In staying connected via WhatsApp messages, they established a lifeline; a vital space to keep their creativity alive, support each other and bear witness to the events unfolding around them.

The autumn must read: Something Wicked this way comes... Accused. Condemned. Redefined. On 20 August 1612, ten people from Pendle were executed before a vast crowd at Lancaster's Gallows Hill. The condemned and their associates had endured six months of accusations, imprisonment and torture...

From Wilkie Collins to the adventures of Sherlock Holmes, the traditional image of the Victorian detective is male. Few people realize that women detectives successfully investigated Victorian Britain, working both with the police and for private agencies, which they sometimes managed themselves. Sara Lodge recovers these forgotten women’s lives. She also reveals the sensational role played by the fantasy female detective in Victorian melodrama and popular fiction, enthralling a public who relished the spectacle of a cross-dressing, fist-swinging heroine.