A History of France in 21 Women

From Eleanor of Aquitaine to Edith Piaf, Colette to Coco Chanel, discover the lives of 21 women who made French history

‘Fascinating, gripping, vividly detailed, this is a wonderful book full of unforgettable lives.’ Kate Williams, author of Becoming Queen

French women have always had so much more to say than ‘let them eat cake’! Whether kicking the English out of Orléans, marching on Versailles or running messages for the French resistance, their stories of courage, creativity and genius have long defined French history.

Unveiling the lives of twenty-one women who changed the course of French history, Katherine Pangonis spins a new history of France from the fifth century to the present day.

Trace the rise of Eleanor of Aquitaine from teenage bride to the most powerful woman in medieval Europe; follow Berthe Morisot as she infiltrates art’s biggest boy’s club – the Impressionists; and discover how two of the twentieth century’s great fashion icons – Coco Chanel and Josephine Baker – found themselves spying for opposite sides during World War Two. Meet lesser known (yet no less influential) figures like Christine de Pizan, a medieval proto-feminist, and Paulette Nardal, who took Paris’s overwhelmingly white, male literary establishment by storm. Fresh, funny and unapologetically feminist, A History of France in 21 Women reveals France as never before.