Normal Women is a radical retelling of our nation's story - not of the rise and fall of kings and the occasional queen - but of social and cultural change, powered by the determination, persistence and effectiveness of women- from 1066 to modern times. Did women really do nothing to shape England's culture and traditions in nine centuries of turmoil, plague, famine, religious reform and the rise of empire and industry? Philippa Gregory answers this question with accounts of female soldiers, guild widows, highwaywomen, pirates, miners and ship owners, international traders, theatre impresarios, runaway enslaved women, 'female husbands', social campaigners and rebels.