Katherine Pangonis in conversation with Genevieve Gaunt at The Ned | A History of France in 21 Women

Historian Katherine Pangonis in conversation with actor Genevieve Gaunt at The Ned, London to discuss Katherine's latest book, 'A History of France in 21 Women'. March 2026. About the book: From Eleanor of Aquitaine to Edith Piaf, Colette to Coco Chanel, discover the lives of 21 women who made French history. Trace the rise of Eleanor of Aquitaine from teenage bride to the most powerful woman in medieval Europe; follow Berthe Morisot as she infiltrates art’s biggest boy’s club – the Impressionists; and discover how two of the twentieth century’s great fashion icons – Coco Chanel and Josephine Baker – found themselves spying for opposite sides during World War Two. Meet lesser known (yet no less influential) figures like Christine de Pizan, a medieval proto-feminist, and Paulette Nardal, who took Paris’s overwhelmingly white, male literary establishment by storm. Fresh, funny and unapologetically feminist, A History of France in 21 Women reveals France as never before.