‘Grief over your dead husband lasts to the door.’ Never heard that one before? That’s right, only the variant about dead wives became popular. Those who delve into widows will come across striking differences with the status of widowers. The loss of a life partner has traditionally translated for men into new freedom, but for women into a disastrous loss of status. Hierarchical imagery is the result of power. Special mourning rituals and seclusion were imposed on widows, and their mourning clothes served as warning beacons. Unaccompanied femininity created so much fear that a widow’s vagina had to be locked, temporarily or for life. Harassment and suspicion of murder or witchcraft – because why had he died and not she? – made many desperately opt for the same fate as their dead husbands.

Widowhood is a heavily neglected subject. From that thick fog of oblivion loom the outlines of a staggering global legacy that has never before been mapped. The good news is that entrenched attitudes are slowly changing – and widows are visibly changing in step.

‘Impressively researched and entertainingly narrated, this book — its information made distinctive by Schipper’s sharp insight and her humour — is an important document that helps us understand our past and, through it, our present.’ Hindustan Times