I love Annie Whitehead’s historical novels. However, this nonfiction book was really hard to read. The writing was very dry and repetitive. Because there were very few facts known about the period, the book seemed to be drawn out. Also, there were no new information and were just a re-hash of what has already been written before. Thus, this is a good introduction to those who do not know much about this period. However, for those that have read a lot about this period, this is a forgettable biography. I’ll be turning to Annie Whitehead’s historical fiction works rather than nonfiction.

Very interesting history book on Anglo Saxon women. I actually requested this title accidentally, but it was well worth the read.

I received an arc from Netgalley (in exchange for a honest review) and I really tried to read this book! It was factual to the point of boring for me and I could not read past the 30% mark no matter how hard I tried. This was unfortunately a DNF for me.

Thanks to Pen & Sword, the author and Netgalley for the chance to read an Advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

'They had rights, they were able to influence events and mindset, and although they took up little of the scribes time and attention, they nevertheless left their mark, enough at least for us to find them'.

There is little known about women in Anglo Saxon England with fact and folklore often mixing together and scarce primary resources. Even so, this book follows the lives of many Anglo Saxon women who were influential in helping to shape Great Britain.

We start off in Northumbria, following the lives of Holy Women then branch out to Mercia and the Royal Family who were mothers, sisters and daughters of kings. We then travel to Wessex where the familiar names from tv shows such as 'The Last Kingdom' and 'Vikings' make an appearance and finally cover off on the impact of Anglo Saxon women as they travel to foreign soil.

I particularly enjoyed the historical origin of Lady Godiva's naked ride through Coventry, the story of Balthild the one-time slave who became queen and Emma and Edith - two women who ruled as queens, although they were never referred to as such.

The book is written very much like a text book, though, and is not for the reader who is looking for a leisurely read. by focusing on family trees, dates and locations, the reader does lose some 'colour' and entertainment value. Though the book is obviously thoroughly researched, the detail draws the focus away from these amazing women.

I do want to note that, in my opinion, this book does not show prejudice for or against Christianity or the Church. What I read was the author illustrating what these institutions were like in this particular era. Christianity was the prevalent religion in Britain at the time and was very different to its modern iteration. As were the institutions of marriage, childbirth and sexuality.

An interesting, well-researched read for the dedicated scholar but I would give it a miss if you are looking to be entertained. 3.5 stars.

Annie Whitehead’s new book brings Anglo-Saxon women to life in a vivid and readable story, simultaneously challenging certain preconceptions about Medieval women as powerless pawns and placing them in the context of their times.

The women she chooses are sometimes controversial (Emma of Normandy and murderous Mercian Queens), and some saints. Literally, others like the mother of Oswald of Northumbria are largely lost to history. By discussing their families and the connections, Whitehead helps sheds some light on even the most obscure women of the various ruling dynasties.

The author follows the logical progression of the period from the age of Saints in the 7th century, to the supremacy of Mercia in the next, and the rise of Wessex in the 9th century under the dynasty of Alfred the great, to the women of the Norman Conquest and just after. Of course, my heroine Lady Aethelflaed is not forgotten. How could she be?

Not all of the women were “powerful” in the way that we would think today, but the author shows how power could be exercised in a real and credible way in early the Early Medieval world and royal families. Being an Abbess or nun did not mean a woman was powerless, as and abbeys were often not only centres of learning but produced diplomats and politicians. The women who ran the earliest English abbeys in the 7th and 8th century “were not considered in any way inferior but revered by men and in the eyes of God.”

Even charters can reveal women taking part legal and administrative processes in their own right, and Queens who might be considered unsuccessful because their dynasties did not survive were nonetheless influential.

Whitehead does subscribe to the idea that women’s rights and power were much reduced after the Norman Conquest. A position I am not sure I entirely agree with, but her book is a valuable and very enjoyable account of the women before and on the cusp of that pivotal event.

One of the final lines sums up the subject: “ for the women of power in Anglo-Saxon England, life was neither dark, nor typically medieval. They had rights, they were able to influence events and mindsets, and although they took up little of the scribes’ time and attention, they nevertheless left their mark, enough at least for us to find them.”

Thanks to Rosie Crofts for sending me my copy of this title

A well researched and written overview of the most powerful women in early Britain. Full of information and facts I recommend for any history lover.

My area of study is the Norman and Plantagenet queens but the power they wielded stemmed from their predecessors in Anglo-Saxon England. This is an insightful look into the power women were able to wield in early medieval England.

I tried. I really did. This period, and area, of history really interests me.
I wound up <b>DNF'ing @ 28%</b>.

I found that the narration was disjointed, and all over the place. I had a hard time keeping up with what was going on. Especially when you jump from one royal household to another, and back, when you are supposed to be learning about a specific house/lineage. It also reminds me of a school text.

I do commend Annie Whitehead for bringing to light the women of power during this time period, and area of history in Britain.

Reading Whitehead's book is somewhere between a professor's powerpoint presentation and an interesting history book. While there are many women covered in this book, it is often lacking that certain engaging attribute that is most likely due to a lack of available information. As much as I wanted to enjoy this, I just couldn't.

Thank you NetGalley and Pen & Sword for the opportunity to read an advance reading copy.

Women of Power in Anglo-Saxon England is an ambitious project, on a scale that few may truly appreciate as it covers over 600 years of Early English history. That's even before factoring in just how fragmented the surviving sources are, and how complicated they can be and how many languages are involved. Or the fact that the majority of such sources were written by men, and not just men, but men in holy orders. As someone who has written about some of these fabulous women, I know just how difficult and complicated a task it is, and just how far you have to go in order to tease out the smallest details.

It is for this reason, that the book can feel a little unwieldy in places. I think that people new to the subject matter and to the time period might well struggle with the first section of the book on Pioneers in Northumbria. In an effort to include every woman, of whom so little is known that sometimes it is just a name, it can feel a little bit like a long list of women who you might not be able to fully grasp their importance in the events of the period. There might also be some frustration that the women could only be powerful because of who they married, gave birth to, or were born to. This, however, can't be avoided. It is the nature of the sources.

And I must urge people to continue reading as the author soon lands on more solid ground (because there is more information available and the women feel more fully formed.) The chapters on Mercia and Wessex are a much easier read, and by the time we reach the chapters on Serial Monogamy and Dowager Queens, the women feel 'real.' Again, this is because of an increase in the source material, and potentially, because readers will know more about the tenth and eleventh centuries.

The author manages to cover an extraordinary number of women over the long centuries of the Early English period, and if there are moments where I might have included different information, or rejected some of the Saints Lives and Anglo-Norman historians from the narrative, this is a personal choice, based on my own research methodology which does seem to be the exception rather than the norm.

I confess, the book would have benefitted from a chronology for each chapter, and perhaps a slightly different format (I read an ebook so this might display differently in the paperback), but overall, I am in awe of the author's ability to hold the narrative together and to produce something that I hope will encourage people to further research these wonderful characters who should be just as well known as their male counterparts.

Unfortunately I didn't get around reading this book title before the publication date. My apologies for this!

If there's anyone who is perfect to write this book, it's Annie Whitehead. Already known for her work on the history of Meercia and on Aethelflaed's life, she tackles a range of women - not just queens - who held, and used, power in the Anglo-Saxon period. And there were many.

Annie Whitehead opens up the era to show how much agency and influence women could have, perhaps surprisingly to anyone who, like me, was brought up to think of the period as male-dominated. And it was, of course, but this book shows how, by birth or determination, women left their mark on the kingdoms of England.

Highly recommended for anyone interested in the Anglo-Saxon period.

Whitehead's work left me wanting. I do not feel it achieved to fulfill the thesis and spent more time on things we want to know rather than what historians actually know about the women from the time period. The book was also disjointed and presented in a confusing way. If you want a quick introduction to the people (mainly men) in power during the time period then you may consider picking this book up.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for the DARC of this work in exchange for my honest review.

This book was sadly disappointing. Chapters 1-5 are basically lists of women who were the wives of kings, sisters of kings, daughters of kings or mothers of future kings. They never come to life and are forgotten a minute after reading about them. They are just pawns in political arrangements, their only power seems to be their fertility.
Chapter 6 finally is a bit more like it, the author uses the women's own sources, letters, testaments etc. But the anecdotes are too short and all over the place.
The book needed more structure and should perhaps have focussed on a few women to make a point where exactly their power came from and how they actually used it.
A missed chance.

Women in history, especially as far back as this book goes, have often been overlooked. Many of them were not documented, past a few footnotes here and there. There are some notable exceptions, such as Eleanor of Aquitaine, and Empress Matilda - both of these women were more then mere footnotes - they stomped their way into the pages of history with gusto and determination.

However, women were just not considered essential. Now, we want to know more. We know that they were more involved than just running the households and pumping out babies for their husbands. They were strong, determined, and often very stubborn beings, who could influence and manipulate the events around them (and if you don't think that is the case - go back to Rome, and the manipulations of the royal women - that will raise a few eyebrows).
As we read through Women of Power in Anglo-Saxon England - I both enjoyed and disliked it. There were aspects where the information was great - it was real, tangible history. But then there were the parts where it felt the author was stretching just a little to much.

I get it, history was written by men (cause if women had written it, it would have been a lot more detailed in some aspects - and not just the military history - no offense to our ancient historical writers). Women were not seen as integral parts, or worth noting their contributions, mainly because, if they had a decent idea, it would be told to a husband or father, and claimed as that persons brilliant idea.

This book was both fascinating and disastrous. I loved that there were some historical evidences to lead back to these women and the lives that they lead. But there were the pitfalls, and had the feelings of "I am not sure where to go with this here... so lets throw this in." I felt that it rambled in areas, where it could have been more succinct, and left the reader with a more concise narration, instead of trying to draw out to make the book longer.

It’s silly and obvious to say this, but there are many periods of history I know little about. In the case of the Dark Ages in Europe, it’s just not something I’ve come across too often in my reading and it wasn’t one of the time periods we covered in any history classes I’ve taken over the years. But it is a period I want to know more about. So, when I read the description for Annie Whitehead’s upcoming Women of Power in Anglo-Saxon England, I jumped at the chance to preview it. Not only is it a time period I’d like to learn more about, it’s focused on the women who are all too often pushed to the background of what little is taught about the period. However, the book proved to be far from what I was expecting and I can’t recommend it to anyone who only has a rudimentary or basic understanding of the place, time period, and major players.

Moving in a largely chronological order, Whitehead looks at the women who wielded the most power through the various kingdoms of what make up the modern United Kingdom. Starting in the 500s and progressing through to the Norman invasion in 1066 (and a little beyond), most of the figures Whitehead includes are the mothers, wives, and daughters of kings. Many of those women also played key roles in the spreading of Christianity through the British Isles, whether by retiring to religious institutions or sponsoring them. Even for these women in prestigious positions with the possibility for wielding power, there is very little in the historical record for Whitehead and other scholars to work from ­– and many of the sources that do exist were written with obvious bias and intent, often contradicting one another and rarely providing a complete or accurate portrait.

Part of the difficulties I had with this book was the format I had for reading it – a digital galley copy. This made it incredibly difficult to reference the numerous family trees that appeared throughout. Since it isn’t a period of history where I already know the major families or even a vague outline of the lineages (and since so many of them reflect their family connections through naming conventions that are probably where Tolkien found a lot of his inspiration), I lost the thread of who was fighting whom, where they were from, and who was related to whom (and how) too easily and too frequently. And despite Whitehead’s assertion that she was moving chronologically, there was a lot of jumping around and referencing figures and events from preceding and following sections.

Another reason I failed to enjoy (or retain much of) this book is that there just isn’t enough information about these women for them to stand out. Whitehead covers so many hundreds of years and so many of the women only appear in the historic record a handful of times, it’s really hard to latch on to any of them for long before she’s moved on to the next figure. Towards the end of the book as she gets closer to the Norman invasion, there are more surviving source materials for her to pull from. But there is still far more speculation and equivocating than I expected.

I thought the book would be far more focused in its scope – maybe a dozen women with a limited biography. That is not what this book is, however. It looks to group these figures into patterns, but then weakens those patterns by emphasizing how often the opposite was also true or just how little is really known and how much falls to speculation. I do understand Whitehead’s position of trying to be clear about the gaps in information and not stating something that can’t be proven beyond doubt. It’s almost certainly as frustrating from her side as the historian and writer as it is as a reader. But it remains an incredibly frustrating reading experience.

For those better versed in the time period, perhaps it’s more enjoyable. I did enjoy the appendix, “The Saints’ Cults” which gave more concise and focused information on many of the religious figures who later became saints, but that’s because it was more what I had been expecting and hoping for when I started the book. The book did also give me a list of old churches, abbeys, and monasteries I wouldn't mind visiting and exploring if I ever find the opportunity in my travels.

For anyone who may wish to read Annie Whitehead’s Women of Power in Anglo-Saxon England, it will be released in the UK on May 30, 2020 and in the US on August 19, 2020 (with those dates subject to further changes).

I would have enjoyed this much more without all the begets. If the author had concentrated on just a few women the book would have been much better but I understand with the scant historical information that would have made a much shorter book.

Good for those who have an interest in this or wanting to do a project that would relate to this. It is not woman-specific so it can be a jump-off point to one or some women in the time period. An introduction to them and how they are connected and what they dealt with.

<b>LIFE IS JUST TOO SHORT FOR BOOKS LIKE THIS 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

DNF at 21%</b>

When I got this ARC I was so excited - that didn't last past page 1. There was absolutely nothing captivating, informative or enlightening about this book, simply because it was so badly written. I get that this is a difficult topic to illuminate; there are lot of names, a lot of people and many of them are even named the same. That's why it is so important to write clearly, provide context, introduce new characters carefully and stay on topic. Whitehead did none of those things, making this one of the most confusing books I have read in a very long time.

J'ai essayé tant bien que mal de terminer cette lecture. Malheureusement, ce livre m'apparaît plutôt comme un ouvrage de type source que de type "lecture" : il est difficile pour le lecteur de suivre le court de tous ces noms ! Ceci en fait une lecture lourde, toujours dans l'optique d'une lecture en continue et non comme ressource.