Author: carolynhughes

How can mere women resist the misogyny of men?1352. In Meonbridge, a resentful peasant rages against Eleanor Titherige’s efforts to build up her flock of sheep. Susanna Miller’s husband, grown melancholy and ill-tempered, succumbs to idle gossip that his wife’s a scold. Agnes Sawyer’s yearning to be a craftsman is met with scorn. And the village priest, fearful of what he considers women’s … considers women’s “unnatural” ambitions, is determined to keep them firmly in their place.Many men hold fast to the teachings of the Church and fear the havoc the “daughters of Eve” might wreak if they’re allowed to…

How do you recover when half your neighbours are dead from history’s cruellest plague?June 1349. In Meonbridge, a Hampshire manor, the Black Death has wiped out half its population, among them Alice atte Wode’s husband and Eleanor Titherige’s entire family. Even the manor’s lord and his wife, Margaret de Bohun, have not escaped the horror.Now the plague is over, it’s a struggle to return to … struggle to return to normal life, with so much to do and so few left to do it. Tensions mount between the de Bohuns and their tenants, as the workers realise their scarceness means…