Normal women by Philippa Gregory

I was so disappointed by Normal women by Philippa Gregory. This is the last book I read by her. I was looking forward to this book, despite its considerable size. The idea behind it seemed great, a non-fiction book on normal women. The book failed again and again. She was supposed to look at the women left out of the history books, where only Queens and King’s mistresses might make an appearance. I gave this 580+ pages book 1 star. Because of this low rating I will write a long review to explain it.

First of all, the book started great, with the women’s life under the Anglo-Saxons being compared to life after the Norman invasion of 1066. I found interesting the descriptions and comments on the Bayeux tapestry, the changes in the life of women after the Black Death (1348), when women and men had equal pay (piecemeal instead of per job).

The book went downhill from there. It became repetitive as she talked again and again about topics such as witchcraft and female sexuality. She had subchapters and the “women loving women” was starting to be weird, placing in the same location women who might have a sexual attraction towards other women (hard to accurately say if it was so due to the nature of the preserved documents) with sisterly love. She talked about “female husbands” and transgender people too much not to be repetitive and too little to make a proper analysis. I think that topic should have been included in a book of its own, it is complicated enough to justify this. The same with Black and slave women, not enough space to do the subject justice.

The last chapter was appalling. It covered, in theory, the period between 1945 and 1994, for some reason. Well, the text of the chapter did not start in 1945 and it didn’t end in 1994. The first thing she mentioned in 1945-1994 was that the late Queen, then a Princess, washed some clothes in 1944. I think, considering how much she talked about what women were doing in WW2, the late Queen’s work as a mechanic and driver in the Auxiliary Territorial Service was more important and worth mentioning.
Also, for Gregory, aristocratic women in the 16th century were amazing, strong, and powerful enough to manage large estates while their husbands were in war. For her though, aristocratic women in the 20th century were too stupid to manage large estates while their husbands were in WW1 or WW2, as they were only giving out commands (paraphrasing). There are plenty of examples showing that this is wrong. Aristocratic women at the start of the 20th century were supposed to manage the estates, organise events, take care of the homes, and so on. Anyone who visits a National Trust home can see the work these women did, just as today a hotel’s CEO would manage it.

What I was even more surprised is how poorly the book was written. I will give 4 examples.
1. In the last chapter she wrote a list of women killed in 2019. Yes, in the chapter 1945-1994, she wrote pages of women killed in 2019. This would have been marked as a fail if it was an essay at university. I have no idea why she didn’t put the title 1945 to today for that chapter. As it was, it seemed she didn’t know what to do with it. Also, lists should be included as an appendix and analysis should be made within the body of the chapter.
2. The second example was shocking, she wrote that most grave diggers were women and went on to give 3 examples! Most means a majority, not 3 examples in which one worked for a year and another took over from her husband after his death.
3. “The novel The Lady of the Camellias, by Alexandre Dumas, tells the story of a beautiful high-class courtesan who (spoiler alert) dies tragically of consumption and was adapted into a successful stage play and then the opera La Traviata by Verdi, confirming the link between female sexuality, illness and death, in high art.” – It’s nice to see that the author thinks her readers are too stupid or too uneducated to know about either the novel or the opera.
4. “Girls were outperforming boys in schools and apprenticeships. Hold the phones!” – I imagine someone with a PhD should know the difference between proper writing in a non-fiction book as opposed to what would be suitable for stand-up comedy or a podcast.

I’ve read so many of her books, over 20, both fiction and non-fiction, but this is the last one!

Normal women by Philippa Gregory

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My rating: 1/5 Stars
Would I recommend it: NO!
Published by: HarperOne
Year it was published: 2023
Format: Hardcover
Genre(s): History
Pages: 688

About the author: Philippa Gregory studied history at the University of Sussex and was awarded a PhD by the University of Edinburgh where she is a Regent and was made Alumna of the Year in 2009. She holds an honorary degree from Teesside University, and is a fellow of the Universities of Sussex and Cardiff. Philippa is a member of the Society of Authors and in 2016, was presented with the Outstanding Contribution to Historical Fiction Award by the Historical Writers’ Association. In 2018, she was awarded an Honorary Platinum Award by Neilsen for achieving significant lifetime sales across her entire book output. In 2021, she was awarded a CBE for services to literature and to her charity Gardens for the Gambia. and was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.
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