The author of a new book on the remarkable story of Margaret Paston whose letters form the most extensive collection of personal writings by a medieval English woman, was given a warm reception in Mautby, where Margaret Paston came from. Over a hundred of Margaret’s letters survive from the fifteenth century, sharing what would be otherwise lost insights into what life was like for the gentry class jockeying for social position during the times of the Bubonic plague and Wars of the Roses.
(C) HSR Photography.
Diane Watt, Professor of English Literature at the University of Surrey, has authored an intriguing and accessible account of Margaret’s life: God’s Own Gentlewoman: The Life of Margaret Paston, published by Icon Books. The book contains snapshots of Margaret’s early, middle and late stages in life, as each new story provides rich social and political contexts for understanding selected letters.
The book is an intimate journey with Margaret Paston and Diane Watt. It is narrated through the lens of Diane’s reflections on generations of women in her own family when retracing Margaret’s footprints in Norfolk landscapes. This makes the reader taste the sense of discovery along with the author, as Margaret’s life unfolds. We learn much about being a woman in the Middle Ages, from childbirth and shopping to managing estates and wily political networking.
Diane Watt remarked, “It was a great privilege to hold the official book launch in the church where Margaret Paston was buried. Mautby was of huge significance to Margaret and it is fitting that her biography should be celebrated there 540 years after her death.”
(C) HSR Photography.
The event was a Heritage Open Day event organized by Icon Books, the Church of St Peter and St Paul, Paston Footprints and supported by Bittern Books.
The stage had been set with the display of the beautiful mannikins of John and Margaret Paston adorned in historic costumes made for the Footprints Project by Penny Knee. Over 60 people attended. The Church Wardens report, “A full church listened intently as Diane read from her book, bringing to life Margaret’s life at Mautby”. A conversation between Diane and Dr Rob Knee, Co-Director of Paston Footprints followed the reading.
(C) HSR Photography.
Dr Knee reflects, “It was such a pleasure to be back in Mautby Church to celebrate the remarkable life of Margaret Paston again. Over the past five years, the Paston Footprints project has worked closely with friends at Mautby to install permanent information boards, develop a heritage walk (accessible at pastonfootprints.co.uk) and a graveyard memorial for people who wish to reflect on the life of ‘the first woman of letters’.” God’s Own Gentlewoman is a book for all keen to learn about the stories behind the letters.
Copies of God’s Own Gentlewoman can be purchased from Bittern Books and all good bookshops.
