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Photo from The Passion of Joan of Arc by Carl Theodor Dreyer

Joan of Arc is the ultimate icon. For French patriots she is the inspirational heroine who, against all the odds, raised the siege of Orléans, crowned the Dauphin and saved France from the English. For feminists she is the woman who triumphed in a man’s world, challenging gender stereotypes by adopting male clothing and becoming not merely a soldier, but a victorious leader of men. For the Catholic church, she is a virgin saint, a simple country girl called by God to become the saviour of her country and to pay the ultimate price at the hands of its enemies when she was burned at the stake in Rouen. Celebrated in books, paintings and films, she is probably the most famous woman to have lived in the Middle Ages.

Neither Sinner Nor Saint, a review of The Virgin Warrior: The Life and Death of Joan of Arc by Larissa Juliet Taylor, in the Literary Review.