Out on 19 June 2025
Remembering Women: Lessons from the Ancient World
Women do have a history of their own. All we need to do is remember it.
»Remembering Women is a truly fascinating book that is subtly radical on every page. Taking a wealth of evidence, Lehnen advocates for us to look again at our history as a source of inspiration to speak out against the status quo. Accessibly written, Lehnen vividly brings the women of the past to light.«
Caroline Magennis , author of Harpy: A Manifesto for Childfree Women
»A fascinating, thought-provoking exploration of powerful women’s lives in the past and today showing how important it is that we remember their successes, leadership, independence and equality.«
Marion Gibson, author of Witchcraft: A History in 13 Trials
»In this clever, imaginative and illuminating book Christine Lehnen takes us on a voyage of exploration through the ways in which we have been conditioned to think about the history of women. She demonstrates that there is nothing natural or inevitable about a historical narrative that subordinates women, and in so doing offers a method for reinventing the present via close and careful attention to the past. The result is thought-provoking and moving in equal measure.«
Daisy Hay, author of The Young Romantics: The Shelleys, Byron, and Other Tangled Lives
»Christine Lehnen’s Remembering Women offers a sharp rejoinder to accounts that lament the absence of women from the historical record – arguing that such arguments actually end up shoring up systems of patriarchy. Following an incisive introduction which situates her book within memory studies scholarship, she surveys multiple areas of women’s lives and various societies from the ancient past, to demonstrate different ways of being a woman. Above all, Lehnen reminds us, appropriately, that memory is not only about remembering: it is also about remembering, and bringing back, what has been forgotten.«
Emily Hauser, author of Mythica: A New History of Homer’s World, Through the Women Written Out of It
writing
Christine Lehnen is a writer and academic. In her books and essays, she spotlights how the past shapes what we think of as normal in the present and what we can envision for our future.
Through life writing and narrative non-fiction, Christine regularly communicates cutting-edge humanities research to the public. Her latest book is Remembering Women: Lessons from the Ancient World. She has worked as an author and reporter in international broadcasting, most notably for DW.com, and has written on history, archaeology, literature, feminism and culture for Aeon, Psyche, Antigone, The Wire India, New Lines Magazine and Cultural Practice Magazine. Christine is the proud founder of the public research magazine 42 .
research
Christine is a Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Exeter. She is an expert on the historical novel, life writing, practice-based research in archives and collections, and Western memory cultures.
Her research has been published in numerous academic outlets such as Rethinking History, Textual Practice, and the Journal of Literary Theory. Her monograph, The Historical Novel in the Twenty-First Century: Grievable Bodies and Marginalised Histories will be published in 2026 by Routledge.
Christine is a trustee of the Historical Fictions Research Network and member of the editorial board of The Journal of Historical Fictions. The network is open to new members and organises an annual in-person conference in the spring, an annual online symposium in the winter, and an online lecture series in the summer. Christine is currently co-organising the network’s summer symposium on transnational historical fictions. We encourage researchers at all career stages to join us, including postgraduates and early career researchers.
fiction
Christine is the an award-winning author of novels, scripts and short stories. She has published ten novels with Penguin Random House and Harper Collins. Her story “Zeus/Europa” was awarded the First Prize of the Young Academies of Europe.
She used to write SFF fiction, suspense fiction, television scripts, and countless articles for newspapers all over the world. Her fiction has been awarded the Lovelybooks Reader Award (Das Lied der Nacht) and was nominated for the RPG Fantasy Award (Palace of Glass). She contributed one episode to Think Big! (produced by ITV Studios) which was nominated for Best Comedy at the Venice TV Awards and the German Television Awards.
She is a Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Exeter. She was the founder and director of the Novel Writing Workshop at the University of Bonn which has seen numerous students go on to receive agency representation. Christine read English and Politics at the University of Bonn and the Nouvelle Sorbonne (Paris III) and completed her doctoral degree at the University of Manchester.
Christine Lehnen is represented by Thérèse Coen at Susanna Lea Associates in London.
As C K Williams, she used to write suspense fiction under a pen name honouring her grandfathers, Wilhelm Lehnen and Ferdinand Surmann.
events
Christine will be launching Remembering Women: Lessons from the Ancient World at the Societies and Cultures Institute at Exeter University on 13 June 2025 (invitation-only).
fun
In her spare time, Christine is most likely to be found on a train to Paris, in a theatre, or in any of the restaurants recommended by the Observer. She is currently reading her way through the collected works of Rachel Cusk. Before that, she immensely enjoyed Booker winning novel Orbital by Samantha Harvey.
She is a lover of the cinema, the theatre, and a seasoned traveller. Next on her list is Florence. At the moment, her favourite restaurant is The Great Indian. The last excellent book she read was Jonathan Little’s and Antoine d’Agata’s account of war crimes committed by the Russian army in Ukraine, An Inconvenient Place. Her favourite festival is the Ruhrfestspiele Recklinghausen (opening on 1 May 2025).
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Born in Recklinghausen in the Ruhr Area in Western Germany, she has since lived in the United States, Australia, Canada and France, and is now based in the UK, where she splits her time between London and Devon.
If you wish to get in touch, please contact my agency at the London office or the press office at Exeter University.
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© Christine Lehnen 2025