The Ordinary Lives of Medieval Women

This event will take place in the British Library Knowledge Centre Pigott Theatre. 

Philippa Gregory’s recent book Normal Women radically reframed our nation’s story, not with the rise and fall of kings and the occasional queen, but through social and cultural transition, showing the agency, persistence, and effectiveness of women in society from 1066 to modern times.

Did women do nothing to shape England’s culture and traditions during nine centuries of political turmoil, plague, famine, prosperity, religious reform? Philippa Gregory answers this question by telling stories of the soldiers, guild widows, highwaywomen, pirates, miners and ship owners, international traders, theatre impresarios, social campaigners and ‘female husbands’ who did much to build the fabric of our society and in ways as diverse and varied as the women themselves.

Meet the ordinary ‘normal women’ who went to war, tilled the fields, campaigned, wrote and loved, committed crimes, worshipped many types of gods, cooked and nursed, invented things and rioted. A lot.
Philippa Gregory is in conversation with Sangita Myska.

This event accompanies the British Library exhibition Medieval Women: In Their Own Words (25 October – 2 March 2025). Separate ticket for exhibition entry required. Explore the Medieval Women events series here.

Doors and bar open at 18:00. If you are attending in person, please arrive no later than 15 minutes before the start time of this event. Followed by a book signing.

Half price tickets available for Members, Students, Under 26 and other concession groups.

Philippa Gregory is one of the world’s foremost historical novelists. She wrote her first novel, Wideacre, when she was completing her PhD in eighteenth-century literature, and went on to write many bestselling novels, including The Other Boleyn Girl and The White Queen. An authority on women’s history, Philippa graduated from the University of Sussex and received a PhD from the University of Edinburgh, where she is a Regent and was made Alumna of the Year in 2009. She holds honorary degrees from Teesside University and the University of Sussex. She is a fellow of the Universities of Sussex and Cardiff and an honorary research fellow at Birkbeck University of London. In 2020 she was made a CBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours for her services to literature and charity.

Sangita Myska is an award-winning presenter, journalist and podcaster who has worked for the BBC and LBC. She has presented a wide range of current affairs documentaries, and was named by European Voice magazine as one of Europe's 50 most influential people for her journalistic work on child trafficking. In 2012, the Women of the Future Programme (International) named her Asian Woman of the Year in the Media. In 2014, her radio work on the consequences of childlessness was recognised her by a place among the finalists for the Journalist of the Year and Investigation of the Year awards, bestowed by the Asian Media Group.

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