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Regina: A New History of Women and Power

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From Cleopatra to Grace Kelly, an epic new history of royal women that shatters the myths we have built around them.

Stories about royal women form some of our most foundational myths about femininity, and yet their legacies have been almost entirely constructed by the words and images created by men.

In Regina, acclaimed historian Kate Williams leads us deep into a world of queens, empresses, princesses, mistresses and courtiers, uncovering how their ambitions were shaped, celebrated and often thwarted, exposing a tangled web of women and power that spans thousands of years.

Ranging from the ancient civilisations of Egypt and Mesopotamia to the opulent courts of the pre-modern world and the last days of colonialism, Williams delves into the lives of these remarkable women, revealing both their trials and triumphs as they navigate political intrigue, family rivalries and personal sacri?ces.

From Hatshepsut and Boudica, through Tudor queens Catherine of Aragon and Lady Jane Grey, to Queen Victoria's contemporaries Yaa Asantewaa of Ghana and Queen Lili'uokalani of Hawaii, and right up to Princess Diana, this is a thrilling, globe-spanning story of queens and royal woman, of female power through the ages that unlocks how we understand women, politics and power today.

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Praise for Regina

  • Regina is the crowning achievement of a lifetime of telling women's stories . . . Kate Williams is a woman of great power herself - Lucy Worsley, author of Jane Austen at Home

  • Erudite, clever, brilliant, this is a beguiling analysis of the world through the lives of 3000 years of female rulers. Essential reading for all who care about how history is made, and whose story gets to be told. Regina is a triumph - Kate Mosse, author of The Map of Bones

  • A fascinating and excellent chronicle of female rulers - some wildly famous, some much neglected - that is effectively a world history told through regal biographies and a guide how to be a queen, wonderfully told by a consummate historian who combines authoritative scholarship with compelling storytelling - Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of The World: A Family History of Humanity

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Kate Williams

Kate Williams

Professor Kate Williams is a historian and the New York Times bestselling author of over ten works of history and historical non-fiction which include Rival Queens, The Royal Palaces and Edge of the Fall. She has presented various TV shows on the BBC, Channel 5 and PBS, including Restoration Home, Young Victoria, Inside Versailles and Secrets of the Royal Palaces. She is CNN's royal historian and covers all royal events for CNN (including the funeral of Elizabeth II) and also discusses royals on the BBC and Sky News. She studied for her BA and DPhil at Oxford and is Professor in Public Engagement with History at the University of Reading, and lectures all over the world. She has appeared on shows from the Great British Bake Off to Gardener's World and has won UK quiz shows including Mastermind, Pointless and Antiques Road Trip. Her greatest love is a dusty document.

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