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
People in this episode
Host: Katy Hickman
Guest: Philippa Gregory
Topics covered
- historical fiction
- Tudors
- Plantagenets
- women's stories
- music
Keywords
- Philippa Gregory
- historical fiction
- Tudors
- Boleyn Traitor
- The Other Boleyn Girl
- women's history
- music choices
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: BBC, BBC Radio 3
Books & works: The Other Boleyn Girl, Boleyn Traitor, Coppelia
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