Fenwomen: A Portrait of Women in an English Village

by Mary Chamberlain

Genres: Nonfiction

256 pages, Paperback

Published September 11, 2025

About the author

Mary Chamberlain is a novelist and historian. Her book Fenwomen: a portrait of women in an English village was the first book to be published by Virago Press in 1975. Since then, she has published six other works of history, and edited a further five. Her first novel, The Mighty Jester was published by Dr. Cicero Books in the US. Her British debut novel, The Dressmaker of Dachau was published by HarperCollins in the UK and, under the title The Dressmaker's War, by Random House in the USA. In all, it sold to 19 countries and was an international best-seller. Her novel, The Hidden, was published by Oneworld Publications in February 2019. The Sunday Times listed it as their MUST READ choice of the best recent books in February 2019. This was followed by, The Forgotten, 2021 and The Lie, 2023 both published by Oneworld. A special 50th anniversary edition of Fenowmen will be published by Virago in September 2025 as part of their Virago Modern Classics, with a new introduction by Alexandra Harris and a cover design by Eleanor Rose.

Reviews

[Nicola · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating oral histories of the women of the Fens. What a great project, recording these ordinary lives at that point in time. Stretching way back to women’s recollections of the late Victorian era. Their relationships, work, hopes and dreams. Captured the 1970s in the Fens in all its limited fullness. I learned about gleaning and much more besides. I felt saddened by the lack of fulfilment some of these women experienced, especially the young woman who passed the exams for the grammar school but her mother couldn’t afford to send her on the bus. Heartbroken for her.

[Davidgilbert Gilbert · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am grateful for so many things

[June Charlotte · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5
A Book group book, though I've wanted to read it for some time.
Scored in terms of the value as a piece of social history, rather than literary value, though it is well structured.
Now that 50 years have passed it would be good if there were references to actual place names (I was keen to have an understanding of the wider geography, esp having often stopped at Red Lodge and Mildenhall en route to Norfolk). Links to more detail on historical events such as the Littleport riots could have been usetul (obvs the reader can do their own research).
The deprivation (by modern standards), importance of religion (& the divide between chapel and church) and the insularity (esp. highlighted by the church views of the
'Outsiders') were very clear. It doesn't feel a remote area of the country to me (the fens further north seem more remote, even alien) - under 6 miles from my loo break 2 weeks ago, but the lack of roads until WW2 would have meant it was isolated.
I've ordered the Richard Blythe book - Akenfield which inspired this female-focused work.

[Lisa of Hopewell]

I learned of this book via this post: https://shereadsnovels.com/2025/11/26...