***** FIVE STARS FROM THE INDEPENDENT *****

‘You’ll lose count of the number of things you learn about women and their skewed place in history as you read Philippa Gregory’s stunning Normal Women ? the book reframes the past ? an essential read’ Independent

FROM THE MULTI-MILLION BESTSELLING HISTORICAL NOVELIST COMES THE CULMINATION OF HER LIFE’S WORK

Did you know that there are more penises than women in the Bayeux Tapestry? That the Peasant’s Revolt was started and propelled by women, protesting a tax on women? Or that celebrated naturalist Charles Darwin believed not just that women were naturally inferior to men but that they’d evolve to become ever more inferior.

These are just a few of the startling findings you will learn from reading Philippa Gregory’s Normal Women. In this ambitious and ground-breaking book, she tells the story of our nation over 900 years, but for the very first time women – some fifty per cent of the population – are no longer invisible in this history of England, but are at its beating heart.

Using research skills honed in her work as one of our foremost historical novelists, Gregory trawled through court records to find highway women, beggars and shepherdesses, through newspapers and diaries to find murderers and brides, housewives and pirates, female husbands and hermits. The ‘normal women’ you will meet in her pages went to war, ploughed the fields, campaigned, wrote, and loved. They rode in jousts, flew Spitfires, issued their own currency and built ships, corn mills and houses as part of their everyday lives They committed crimes, or treason, worshipped many gods, cooked and nursed, invented things and rioted. A lot. They built our society to be as diverse and varied as the women themselves. They are there in the archives – if you look – and they made our history.

‘This radical reframing of conventional history shows the agency, persistence and effectiveness of women in society?Philippa Gregory has been working on this book for more than 10 years, women have been waiting for this gratifying and informative acknowledgment for a thousand’
ADELE PARKS

‘Michael Mansfield is the greatest civil liberties lawyer this country has ever produced’ – Baroness HELENA KENNEDY of the Shaws KC

‘Michael Mansfield has given power to the voiceless, the innocents … For this, he too is a hero’ – JOHN PILGER

‘Michael Mansfield combines rare humanity with a brilliant understanding of the law’ – JON SNOW

‘A book of great importance … Mr Mansfield’s thoughtful reflections demand our attention’ – KEN LOACH

‘An impressive and inspiring read’ – DUNCAN CAMPBELL

‘I want this book to inspire people, give them a blueprint for fighting their own battles, and challenge the status quo. To see that together, we are always stronger. To understand that those who stand in the way of change cannot do so forever.’ Michael Mansfield, KC

Barrister Michael Mansfield, KC, has spent his career fighting injustice, persecution and corruption. And be it the Birmingham Six, Bloody Sunday, Stephen Lawrence, the Marchioness, Hillsborough or Grenfell, he has come to learn one thing – that people power is unstoppable.

Time and again he has witnessed governments, police forces, legal institutions and the establishment, try to block change and maintain the status quo in order to protect their interests. But almost every time he has seen that passion, perseverance, collectivity and courage create a powerful momentum which is increasingly difficult to stop.

In this short but powerful book, the veteran barrister draws upon his 50 years of fighting for justice and revisits his most important cases and clients, proving without doubt that when people get together they can make lasting and positive change.

The power is in the people – not the people in power.

British democracy is on trial. We can no longer hold our leaders to account; the state has too much power; and the truth doesn’t matter at all. Those we voted into government have nothing but contempt for the democratic
system that got them there.

When the Prime Minister illegally prorogued Parliament, barrister Sam Fowles was part of the team that took him to court, and won. The scenes of the police violently restraining women
at a vigil for Sarah Everard shook the nation. In a high-profile parliamentary inquiry, Fowles proved the Met’s actions fundamentally breached our right to protest. For decades, the Post Office pursued criminal prosecutions against its own employees, knowing the evidence was dodgy all along. Fowles helped reveal the rot at the heart of a trusted national institution.

We shouldn’t have to take our rulers to court just to get them to follow the rules. At a crucial juncture for British governance, Fowles urges us not to take our freedoms for granted.

WINNER OF IRISH BOOK OF THE YEAR

SHORTLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE

‘The most important work of contemporary reporting I have ever read’ SALLY ROONEY

The treatment of refugees has become one of the most devastating human rights disasters in our history. In this book, award-winning journalist Sally Hayden unfolds a staggering investigation into the migrant crisis across North Africa.

This book follows the experiences of refugees, telling a range of shocking and eye-opening human stories. But it also surveys the bigger picture: the negligence of NGOs and corruption within the United Nations. The economics of the twenty-first-century slave trade and the EU’s bankrolling of Libyan militias. The trials of people smugglers, the frustrations of aid workers, the loopholes refugees seek out and the role of social media in crowdfunding ransoms. Who was accountable for the abuse? Where were the people finding solutions? Why wasn’t it being widely reported?

At its heart, this is a book about people who have made unimaginable choices, risking everything to survive in a system that wants them to be silent and disappear.

British democracy is on trial. We can no longer hold our leaders to account; the state has too much power; and the truth doesn’t matter at all. Those we voted into government have nothing but contempt for the democratic
system that got them there.

When the Prime Minister illegally prorogued Parliament, barrister Sam Fowles was part of the team that took him to court, and won. The scenes of the police violently restraining women
at a vigil for Sarah Everard shook the nation. In a high-profile parliamentary inquiry, Fowles proved the Met’s actions fundamentally breached our right to protest. For decades, the Post Office pursued criminal prosecutions against its own employees, knowing the evidence was dodgy all along. Fowles helped reveal the rot at the heart of a trusted national institution.

We shouldn’t have to take our rulers to court just to get them to follow the rules. At a crucial juncture for British governance, Fowles urges us not to take our freedoms for granted.