BAD GIRLS AND WICKED WOMEN
Jan Stradling (ISBN 9781741960433)
In honour of International Women’s Day (yes, a day late, but, well, it is still International Women’s Day in some parts of the world), allow me to point you towards the beautiful, charming and witty work of Jan Stradling. Bad Girls and Wicked Women is the perfect antidote to anyone who thinks that ‘accurate’ historical fiction or quasi-medieval fantasy must relegate all female characters to a background role.
From well-known persons, such as Cleopatra to Mata Hari to the Empress Dowager, to the less famous but equally marvellous, Jan Stradling does a stunning job of bringing humour and intelligence to bear on the misunderstood, the maligned, the feared, the powerful, the great and the daring among history’s women. If you are sort of suspicious (or even already certain) that prior to the year 1900 women did more than sit behind locked doors and embroider (or the local cultural equivalent thereof), then this is the book for you. Site down, kick back and take a wild ride with some of the great personalities of our history.
