Poet, Mystic, Widow, Wife: The Extraordinary Lives of Medieval Women

A spectacular, vivid, groundbreaking work of history which takes us into the minds and lives of medieval women.

What was life really like for women in the medieval period? How did they think about sex, death and God? Could they live independent lives? And how can we hear their stories?

Few women had the luxury of writing down their thoughts and feelings during medieval times. But remarkably, there are at least four extraordinary women who did. Marie de France, a poet; Julian of Norwich, a mystic and anchoress; Christine de Pizan, a widow and court writer; and Margery Kempe, a "no-good wife". In their own ways these four very different writers pushed back against the misogyny of the period. Each broke new ground in women's writing and left us incredible insights into the world of medieval life and politics.

Hetta Howes has spent her working life uncovering these women's stories to give us a valuable and unique historical biography of their lives that challenges what we think we know about medieval women in Europe. Women did earn money, they could live independent lives, and they thought, loved, fought and suffered just as we do today.

This mesmerizing book is an unforgettably lively and immersive journey into the everyday lives of medieval women through the stories of these four iconic women writers, some of which are retold here for general readers for the first time.

Review

A fascinating book about four women - each a heroine in her own way - it tells us so much about their world, and about our own. What jumps off the page is the liveliness of the women, their passion, their courage and their own way of being a woman.

― Philippa Gregory, author of The Other Boleyn Girl and Normal Women

A celebration of female ambition and endeavour... enormous fun. ― The Sunday Times

Brilliantly revealing. ― Observer

Lively and enjoyable. The result is illuminating. evokes the spirit of the period so well. ― History Today

Beautifully written and brilliantly observed, Hetta Howes unlocks the secrets of women's lives, so often silent and inconspicuous in our histories, and shows us the medieval world as we've never seen it before. Full of surprises and packed with thrilling details, this is an important, eye-opening book. ― Alice Loxton, author of Eighteen: A History of Britain in 18 Young Lives and Uproar!

Howes's book is highly readable and informative. ― The Spectator

Weaving research, political insight and the women's own words, this is a brilliant portrait of four trailblazers. ― The Simple Things

Hetta Howes unflinchingly explores the trials medieval women faced and, importantly, how they fought back. ― Tabitha Stanmore, author of Cunning Folk: Life in the Era of Practical Magic

Hetta Howes approaches four pathbreaking women writers much as they approached medieval society's limitations on them: with narrative agency, innovation, and even a touch of irreverence. Her witty and amusing portrait reveals some astonishing truths: that these medieval women not only existed and held their own--but that their experiences of life, marriage, career, sex, and society are remarkably akin to our own. ― Vanessa 'V.M.' Braganza, currently at work on her first trade book, The Secret-Seekers: A Detective's Quest to Decipher the Renaissance

With expert knowledge and manifest enthusiasm, Howes uses four very different women as jumping-off points from which to discuss medieval women's lifespan and experiences, from marriage and love, to work and friendship, to power, achievement, and death. Engaging, authoritative, and original. ― Carolyne Larrington, Emerita Professor in Medieval European Literature, University of Oxford and author of The Land of the Green Man

This meticulously researched book makes visible so much that popular models of medieval life have found inconvenient or uninteresting to accommodate: female friendship, lesbianism, pregnancy support, and above all the endless negotiations, compromises and sleights-of-hand which women must constantly enact to survive, then as now. ― Noreen Masud, author of A Flat Place - shortlisted for the Women’s Prize

A spirited, sparky, and brisk account. With verve and brio, Howes takes the reader into medieval society via some of its most eloquent women, making them approachable and relevant to the world today. ― Anthony Bale, author of A Travel Guide to the Middle Ages: The World Through Medieval Eyes

In this engrossing début work, medieval historian Howes explores the lives of four women. ― The Bookseller's Buyers Guide Seasonal Highlights

Vivid, deeply researched, and addictively readable, Hetta Howes' Poet, Mystic, Widow, Wife offers a rich, nuanced picture of medieval women's lives. Drawing on a range of historical archives and literary works, Howes shows us how women thrived in a patriarchal world as writers, visionaries, and entrepreneurs. ― Irina Dumitrescu

Weaving together detail from a huge range of European narratives and documentary sources, Hetta Howes brilliantly illuminates the lives of four medieval women whose experiences prompted writings of different kinds. Her imaginative engagement with these women's worlds, with their circumstances and predicaments, makes for a spirited commentary on the continuities and fractures in women's history. ― Julia Boffey, Professor Emerita of Medieval Studies, Queen Mary University, London

The lives of four groundbreaking women - Marie de France, Julian of Norwich,Christine de Pizan and Margery Kempe - are explored with great verve by Dr Hetta Howes in Poet, Mystic, Widow, Wife. ― Independent

Hetta Howes shines a bright spotlight on four women from the Middle Ages who have been almost forgotten or ignored for far too long. ― NetGalley review

A spectacular, vivid and ground-breaking work of history that takes us into the minds and lives of medieval women. Superb writing from this author, a very eye catching cover, this book will go far, 5 stars. Blindingly excellent ... This book should come with a disclaimer as once you start reading you aren't going to want to walk away. ― NetGalley review

I feel fortunate to have had the opportunity to read this book. Poet, Mystic, Widow, Wife is a medieval journey based on four groundbreaking women. These four women (hence the excellently fit and creative title), with their norm-defying attitudes, bravery, honesty and determination, provide us with incredibly interesting insights about medieval life. Howes' prose is compelling and captivating. This title is by far the most informative and engaging non-fiction book that I have read on this matter to date. Howes' approach to these cool women's writing, life and what medieval life was like for women is a great addition to the literature, and thanks to the smooth blending with a fitting narrative, it is a wonderful addition to 'literature' as well. ― NetGalley Review

About the Author

Dr Hetta Howes is a Lecturer in Medieval and Early Modern Literature at City, University of London, and a BBC/AHRC New Generation Thinker. She regularly contributes to broadcasts on BBC Radio 3 and 4, as well as writing for publications such as The Times Literary Supplement and BBC History Extra. She has a BA and MPhil from Cambridge University and a PhD from Queen Mary, University of London. Howes has published on the tropes of crying and cleansing in medieval Passion meditation, on blood and shame in medieval lyrics, and on the role of sight in fourteenth-century alliterative verse. Her academic book Transformative Waters in Late Medieval Literature was published by Boydell and Brewer in 2021. Poet, Mystic, Widow, Wife is her first book for a popular audience.