Janina Ramirez for Legenda: The Real Women Behind the Myths that Shaped Europe

From the bestselling author of FEMINA, a brilliant reappraisal of the medieval women whose lives have been exploited over centuries for political, nation-building ends.

In LEGENDA, bestselling historian Professor Janina Ramirez peels back the layers of time to reveal how the identities of women have been co-opted by those intent on crafting national identities. Their names are well-known, and summaries of their achievements have been recited in classrooms for decades, but medieval women like Joan of Arc, Lady Godiva and Isabella of Castile have been misrepresented, their stories twisted and weaponised. Meanwhile, ground-breaking 18th and 19th-century women who blazed a trail through revolutionary Europe have been forgotten, their legacies too easily dismissed or ignored.

Questioning established narratives and searching for the real women behind the legends, Ramirez interrogates what defines a nation and who gets to build it, shining a light on how history is so often hijacked to serve the ideological and political interests of the present.

'Ramirez blasts a powerful spotlight into the so-called Dark Ages and reveals a vibrant world, awash with colour and character' DAN SNOW

'Skillfully brings out from the shadows the lives of women who ruled, fought, traded, created, and inspired' CAT JARMAN

Janina will be in conversation with Victoria Bateman. Victoria is author of the critically acclaimed Naked Feminism: Breaking the Cult of Female Modesty (Polity, 2023) and The Sex Factor: How Women Made the West Rich (Polity, 2019). She is resident economic historian on the BBC Radio 4 series Understand: The Economy and acts as a historical consultant to a major television production company.

She has taught at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, including as Director of Studies in Economics and Lecturer in Economic History. Victoria has been profiled by The Times and Daily Mail, has written for national and international press, including the Guardian, i, Telegraph and Bloomberg, and has appeared on numerous occasions on radio and television.

Victoria's new book, Economica: A Global History of Women, Wealth and Power, is available now.

Professor Janina Ramirez is a Sunday Times bestselling author, an Oxford lecturer, BBC broadcaster and researcher. She has presented and written over 30 hours of BBC history documentaries and series on TV and radio, and written seven books for children and adults. Her book Femina was an instant Sunday Times bestseller.