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Philippa Gregory was an established historian and writer when she discovered her interest in the Tudor period and wrote the novel The Other Boleyn Girl, which was made into a TV drama, and a major film. Now, six novels later, she is looking at the family that preceded the Tudors: the magnificent Plantaganets, a family of complex rivalries, loves, and hatreds.
She lives with her family on a small farm in Yorkshire where she keeps horses, hens and ducks.
Her other great interest is the charity that she founded nearly twenty years ago: Gardens for The Gambia. She has raised funds and paid for 140 wells in the primary schools of this very dry and poor African country, and thousands of school children have been able to learn market gardening in the school gardens watered by the wells. The charity also provides wells for womens’ collective gardens and for The Gambia’s only agricultural college at Njawara.
A past student of Sussex university, and a PhD and Alumna of the Year 2009 of Edinburgh university, her love for history and commitment to historical accuracy are the hallmarks of her writing. She also reviews for the Washington Post, the LA Times, and for UK newspapers, and is a regular broadcaster on television and radio.
Philippa Gregory's website
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In your newest novel, The Boleyn Inheritance, you depict the life
of King Henry VIII and his court through the eyes of three very different
characters. Why did you choose to narrate this story through multiple voices and
why these three women in particular?
I have a great liking for the first person narrative because I think it gets
the reader into the head of the character; it’s a very immediate style. I
realized that I wanted to tell the story from the point of view of the three
women who were so intimately involved in the perils of being Queen of England at
this time. Anne of Cleves, the wife that Henry chooses and rejects, Katherine
Howard the girl he adores but who is too young to keep herself safe, and the
woman who advises them both to their great danger: Lady Rochford, Jane Boleyn.
The Boleyn family utilized scheming and jockeying for favor in the court and
in particular, for the favor of King Henry VIII. For Jane Rochford, the last in
the Boleyn family, do you believe she knew her fate, the final fate of the
Boleyn inheritance, when she went back to court?
Jane’s belief was that the Boleyn inheritance was wealth and fame and she
sacrificed her husband George and her sister in ...
Vanora Bennett became a journalist almost by accident. Having learned Russian and been hired after university by Reuters, she was catapulted out of the classical-music life of her family and straight into the adrenaline-... (more)
If you enjoyed:
The Boleyn Inheritance
Try:
The Queen's Lover
by Vanora Bennett
Tracy Chevalier was born in Washington, DC but has lived in England all her adult life. She now has dual citizenship. She has a BA in English from Oberlin College, Ohio and an MA in creative writing from the University of ... (more)
If you enjoyed:
The Boleyn Inheritance
Try:
The Lady and the Unicorn
by Tracy Chevalier
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