Philippa Gregory
About this episode
Philippa Gregory discusses her journey as a historical fiction author and her latest work focusing on the Tudors.
Philippa Gregory has been called the ‘Queen of Historical Fiction’. The English royal court has inspired many of her best-selling titles, and she’s written sixteen novels about the Plantagenets and Tudors. One of them – The Other Boleyn Girl – became a BBC TV drama and a Hollywood movie starring Scarlett Johansson and Natalie Portman. This success probably surprised her A level teachers: she says she found history ‘insanely boring’ at school, but her passion was fired at university. She’s also written non-fiction, notably seeking the stories of what she calls ‘normal women’ over 900 years. More recently she’s returned to the Tudors, with a novel called Boleyn Traitor, focussing on the intrigue surrounding Anne’s sister-in-law, Jane. Her music choices include Mozart, Philip Glass, Scott Joplin and the Mazurka from Coppelia by Leo Delibes. Producer: Katy Hickman
More episodes of Private Passions
- Professor Dame Ijeoma Uchegbu, chemist
- Dietmar Mueller-Elmau, entrepreneur
- Rachel Eliza Griffiths, poet and novelist
- Francis Spufford, writer
- Sir Ian Blatchford, Science Museum director
- George Saunders, writer
Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Private Passions podcast page.