Truthful Tales of Wicked Women

by Helen Nathaniel-Fulton
Published in Silence Press, 2024
268 pages, £13
ISBN 978-1-7399434-7-9

So many women since the beginning of time have been described as 'wicked'. Murderers, revolutionaries, rulers, wives, mothers. But were they all 'wicked'? Why did they do the things they did? Who was judging them as 'wicked' and by what criteria? As you look back, it becomes clearer that some women have always fought against stereotyping, have done what they supposedly couldn't or shouldn't by the cultural standards of their age. They are always confronting the same forces, triumphing over or succumbing to them.

Some have possessed rebellious natures; some great ambition; some enormous greed for life and its luxuries; some have known what it is they want and have been determined to get it despite every obstacle; some have been forced to extremes to survive at all. Others appear genuinely to have been driven by some 'evil' force, a force of malice that impels both men and women to commit terrible deeds. The fact most history was written by men for men for so long has also had a huge impact.

These vivid, compelling tales are perhaps closest to what the ancient Greeks called 'historia'; a mix of storytelling, acquired knowledge, observation, analysis and myth. They are about some of the above questions and explore in an original way, from a balanced, perceptive and entertaining angle, the extraordinary and often tragic lives of many of these famous and infamous women, reducing the distance between them and us. They were all important, with stories and lessons that should not be forgotten.