About The Book
In this enthralling historical journey, celebrated historian Kate Williams leads us into the world of queens, empresses, princesses, mistresses and ladies-in-waiting. Stories about royal women form some of our most foundational myths about femininity, and yet their legacies have been almost entirely constructed by the words and images of men.
From the ancient civilisations of Egypt and Mesopotamia to the opulent courts of the pre-medieval world, REGINA delves deep into the lives of these remarkable women, uncovering both their trials and triumphs as they navigate political intrigue, family rivalries and personal sacrifices. From Hatshepsut and Cleopatra, through to Tudor queens Catherine of Aragon and Lady Jane Grey, via Queen Victoria’s contemporaries Yaa Asentewaa of Ghana and Queen Lili’oukulani of Hawaii, and right up to Princess Diana, this is an unmissable history that unlocks why we think about women, politics and power in the ways that we do.
About the Author
Kate Williams is an author, social historian and broadcaster.
The Storms of War, her first novel in the De Witt trilogy, was widely acclaimed, reviewed as ‘spellbinding, gripping and beautiful’. She has always wanted to travel in time and wrote her first novel when she was seven (
The Adventures of Maria) – it was rather short.
Kate loves delving into archives, collections, diaries and letters. She has a DPhil from Oxford and is the author of the novel The Pleasures of Men and four historical biographies of Emma Hamilton, Queen Victoria, Elizabeth II and Empress Josephine – which is being made into a major TV series.
She is Professor of Public History at the University of Reading.
