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 *Terrific … absolutely compelling * Antonia Fraser, author of Marie Antoinette: The Journey *Lyrical, rich … Williams enlarges our past, transforming our understanding of power. Williams has shown me that our appreciation of the past is incomplete. She writes so eloquently about female power, not to detract from traditional notions of kingship but adding vastly to them to provide a richer, more comprehensive history. Kate Williams is a queen of narrative history * Dan Snow, author of The History of England *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 *This is so much more than a history of female rulers: it shines a dazzling, often unflattering light on how women in power have been viewed by the societies in which they lived. Brilliantly-written, thought-provoking and utterly compelling throughout, it provokes admiration and anger in equal measure. A stunning achievement * Tracy Borman, author of The House of Boleyn *These really are Great Lives. Brilliant, fascinating portraits, told with scholarship and wry humour. I’ve learned the origin of ‘Pharoah’ and why no one knows Boudica’s real name. This is my historical happy place * Conn Iggulden, author of Nero *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 *Their stories have been told through the centuries - but all too often filtered through the words of men. In Regina, Kate Williams restores what was lost in a landmark history of royal women, power and the enduring myths we were never meant to question * Lindsey Fitzharris, NY Times Bestselling Author of The Facemaker *Brilliant. Yet again, Williams brings history to life in the most sizzling, scintillating way, combining meticulous research with dynamo storytelling. This book is a triumph! * Alice Loxton, author of Eleanor: A 200-Mile Walk in Search of England’s Lost Queen *A royal smash. Kate Williams is at the top of her game. She tells the story of queenship with the glitz of a royal ball and the precision of the executioner’s axe. If you think you know the history of queens, think again. Kate Williams really is the queen of royal history. * Kate Lister, author of Flick, The Story of Female Pleasure *One of Britain’s most cherished public historians and leading expert of European Elite women strikes again. From the she-king Hatshepsut, the guillotined Marie-Antoinette to the beloved Princess Diana, Williams’s magnificent new book Regina takes us on an exhilarating expedition across 3000 years of women’s history. Williams’s exquisite signature plume confronts inherited and pervasive misogyny across continents while celebrating female monarchs and power broker’s ruling methods and unique achievements. Regina is a compelling invitation to embed Women’s history more strongly into World and Colonial Histories * Olivette Otele, author of African Europeans: An Untold History *Kate Williams tells the lives of women who ruled with both empathy and rigour. this is a tour de force book that will make you rethink everything you know about gender and power * Helen Carr, author of Sceptred Isle: A New History of the Fourteenth Century *In a rich and incisive reimagining of the past, Kate Williams cuts through familiar cliches to offer us a dazzling, globe-spanning procession of queens to show how deeply our histories of female power have been shaped by bias. Regina is as engaging and unsettling - and as indomitable - as the remarkable women it brings to life * Nandini Das, author of This Little World: A New History of Tudor and Stuart England *Seductress, maniac, tyrant: just some of the labels attached to queens across the centuries. In Regina, Professor Kate WIlliams cuts through centuries of spin to reveal the often surprising realities of female rule. The result is a vivid, humane and deeply compelling history. A must-read * Anthony Delaney, author of Queer Georgians *Regina reveals the invisible dynamics behind the careers of history’s most visible women. In a grand, ambitious sweep through 3000 years of female power, Kate Williams incisively proves that our understanding of the queens of the past remains a vital element in defining the boundaries which still confine all women today. Forceful and urgent, Regina is also a profound work of scholarship, providing intimate, poignant portraits of both queens we think we know and many whose stories and strategies have been neglected. Kate Williams pulverises the notion that the history of men is about fact, whilst that of women concerns personality. Ruthless, brilliant, scheming, violent, treacherous, noble, these queens are not heroines but something more important: individual rulers whose impact on world history is still overlooked * Lisa Hilton, author of The Scandal of the Century *Regina is a thoroughly engrossing work - full to the brim with fascinating research and impassioned prose. Through an extraordinary variety of artefacts and archival material, Kate Williams demonstrates how images of queenship have been weaponised globally for time immemorial. Rich in detail and depth, vibrant and full of life * Rebecca Rideal, author of 1666: Plague, War and Hellfire *An enthralling study - and long-overdue appraisal - of many of history’s most intriguing and misunderstood rulers. Though perhaps not the mot juste for a book entirely about Queens by one of our foremost (female) historians, it applies non the less: masterly * Robert Hardman *An energetic, in-depth and thought-provoking account of female rulers across space and time. In a style at once entertaining, empathetic and scholarly, Williams untangles the lives of some of history’s most extraordinary women from those of the men around them who often tried to control their actions and their legacies. In doing so, she restores the humanity to a host of warrior-queens, queens regnant and female kings. I devoured it * Luke Pepera, author of Motherland: A Journey Through African History, Culture and Identity *

Professor Kate Williams is a historian and the New York Times bestselling author of over ten works of history and historical non-fiction, including Rival Queens, The Royal Palaces, and Edge of the Fall.

She has presented numerous TV shows for the BBC, Channel 5, and PBS, such as Restoration Home, Young Victoria, Inside Versailles, and Secrets of the Royal Palaces. Professor Williams is CNN’s royal historian, covering all royal events for the network, including the funeral of Elizabeth II. She also discusses royal matters on the BBC and Sky News.

She holds a BA and DPhil from Oxford University and is a Professor in Public Engagement with History at the University of Reading. She lectures internationally and has appeared on shows like the Great British Bake Off and Gardener’s World. Professor Williams is also a winner of UK quiz shows, including Mastermind, Pointless, and Antiques Road Trip. Her greatest love is a dusty document.

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