Welcome to the History Extra podcast, fascinating historical conversations from the makers of BBC History Magazine.

You've heard of William Shakespeare, but have you heard of Mary Sydney? Or what about Elizabeth Carey?

Not many people know about the four Renaissance women writers

that Ramey Targhoff discusses in her new book, Shakespeare's sisters.

Yet they all made significant literary contributions during their lifetimes.

Lauren Good spoke to Ramey to find out more about these four writers and explore why they've

been forgotten.

Ramey, thank you so much for joining me today.

Firstly, how did you come to discover women's works from the Renaissance period?

Thank you, first of all, so much, Lauren, for having me.

I'm delighted to be speaking

with you today. I finished university with my first degree in 1989, and then I went to get a PhD

both times majoring in English, studying specifically for my PhD Renaissance literature. I never read

a single word written by a woman. And I find that now really shocking and

remarkable because it turns out, as we'll be talking about today, there were quite a number of

women who were not just writing privately, but also published and recognized as writers during

the era of Shakespeare at the very time that Virginia Woolf in her manifesto

says it would have been truly impossible if Shea Spirit had a sister. She imagined someone

named Judith. Shea's spear with the same talent as her brother. It would have been impossible

for her to have made a life as a writer. I first started to hear about the women who were in my

book right after I finished my

PhD, and that was because these women started to be published. So it was really in the second half of

...