The Private Lives of the Saints

What a wonderful book this is. Like the interlace stonework on an Anglo-Saxon cross, Janina Ramirez’s themes are interwoven with a consummate skill. * Tom Holland *
Ramirez blasts a powerful spotlight into the so-called Dark Ages and reveals a vibrant world, awash with colour and character. * Dan Snow *
A wonderful book * Simon Schama *
Entertaining … carefully composed * Observer *
Those who were recast as saints achieved a superhuman status, their real lives often obscured by hagiographies rich with legends of miracle-working from beyond the grave. Janina Ramirez’s book portrays them historically – as living, breathing personalities within the world they knew, the places we have inherited. Her enthusiasm and instinct for relevance should welcome a broad new audience to medieval Church history. * Jonathan Foyle *
What a wonderful book this is. Like the interlace stonework on an Anglo-Saxon cross, Janina Ramirez’s themes are interwoven with a consummate skill. * Tom Holland *
Ramirez blasts a powerful spotlight into the so-called Dark Ages and reveals a vibrant world, awash with colour and character. * Dan Snow *
A wonderful book * Simon Schama *
Entertaining … carefully composed * Observer *
Those who were recast as saints achieved a superhuman status, their real lives often obscured by hagiographies rich with legends of miracle-working from beyond the grave. Janina Ramirez’s book portrays them historically – as living, breathing personalities within the world they knew, the places we have inherited. Her enthusiasm and instinct for relevance should welcome a broad new audience to medieval Church history. * Jonathan Foyle *
What a wonderful book this is. Like the interlace stonework on an Anglo-Saxon cross, Janina Ramirez’s themes are interwoven with a consummate skill. * Tom Holland *
Ramirez blasts a powerful spotlight into the so-called Dark Ages and reveals a vibrant world, awash with colour and character. * Dan Snow *
A wonderful book * Simon Schama *
Entertaining … carefully composed * Observer *
Those who were recast as saints achieved a superhuman status, their real lives often obscured by hagiographies rich with legends of miracle-working from beyond the grave. Janina Ramirez’s book portrays them historically – as living, breathing personalities within the world they knew, the places we have inherited. Her enthusiasm and instinct for relevance should welcome a broad new audience to medieval Church history. * Jonathan Foyle *

Janina Ramirez

Janina Ramirez is a Sunday Times bestselling author, Oxford lecturer, BBC broadcaster, and researcher.

She is the Director of Studies for History of Art at Harris Manchester College, University of Oxford, and a Visiting Professor in Medieval Studies at the University of Lincoln.

Janina has published widely on medieval history, art, and literature, and has written both fiction and non-fiction for adults and younger readers. She has written and presented documentaries across the world for over 15 years.

She is Lifelong President of Gloucester History Festival and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, Royal Society of Arts, Universities of York and Gloucestershire, and City Lit.

Her book Femina was an instant Sunday Times bestseller.

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