NORMAL WOMEN: 900 Years of Making History
by Philippa Gregory
(William Collins, $39)
“In the Middle Ages, women were their husbands’ property. Some churchmen doubted they had souls.
Hilary Mantel called her a “great fictionalising machine”. For more than 30 years, the historical novelist Philippa Gregory has puréed real lives into romantic fiction frequently set in the royal courts of the 15th and 16th century. With titles like and Gregory’s crowning by media as “the queen of British historical fiction”
