Ask the Author: Philippa Gregory
Answered Questions (30)
Philippa Gregory
Alas, poor me! I really hate the sort of trolling that occurs from time to time, and I am amazed at the tone that people think appropriate to write about someone, or even to write to them. A lot of the most spiteful people are not trained historians – so they haven't learned the habit of detachment from the subject – they write as if they are defending an unjustly accused personal friend, whereas the reputation of these characters is something which can be rightly and carefully considered, and the people lived 500 years ago! At all the universities where I have taught or studied there is an absolute commitment to scholarly discussion which should never be personal or rude, and is supposed to get you – by the exchange of views and information – to a greater truth. So it is surprising and even shocking when people just rant. But often they forget that the books are novels, they are fiction and though based on fact they are supposed to be works of literature with their own narrative arc and language. I am not obliged to record everything that happened or even the whole of the life. The other thing that people seem to forget is that the books are almost all written from a point of view – often it's not what I think of a character, but what the narrator thinks of a character. You can see this really well in the contrast between The White Queen which was written from the point of view of Elizabeth Woodville, and The Red Queen which was written from the point of view of Margaret Beaufort. Their opinions of each other are those of rivals and sometimes friends and ultimately enemies – but I don't think of Elizabeth Woodville as a conniving sexually manipulative witch – that's Margaret Beaufort's opinion. My job is to get into her head, so as to invite the reader into her head and let the reader see the world through Margaret Beaufort's eyes with her prejudices and her mistakes. AND (as if this weren't complicated enough) Margaret Beaufort does not know all the history that I know, she does not know what happens after her death, so her account of the times is not what I would write if I were writing history. She's a fictional character in my novel and her view is a fictional account from a very limited idiosyncratic point of view. And finally – sorry for such a long answer – I think the controversy is the downside of success. More than 9 million people read my books – naturally a proportion of them won't enjoy them, or prefer one to another, or prefer the tv or the films. But on the other hand I enjoy a lot of praise and I get great reviews and I number some of the great historians of the period among my personal friends. The best response is from the readers who have been inspired to study history and read the records that I use for research so that they can find out for themselves what they think a character was like. That's so much more interesting than trying to shout other people down.
Philippa Gregory
You're right, she's a wonderful character for a historical novel and I know I would enjoy researching her marriage and then her love-story. I'll put her on the list, but there are a few women that I want to write about before I come to her!
Philippa Gregory
The Seymours are completely fascinating and I have quite a lot about Thomas Seymour who was Kateryn Parr's lover and then husband in my new novel The Taming of the Queen. You are right, they are a fascinating family and Jane Seymour's two brothers really deserve a novel to themselves. But if I were going to write a book from a male viewpoint of this cohort of Tudors I think I would write about George Boleyn who seems to me to be a young man of really wonderful potential whose life was sacrificed in the plot to bring down his sister. The trouble with this period is that there are so many interesting characters!
Philippa Gregory
Prince Richard's story and the likelihood of his survival has been wonderfully analysed by historians, especially David Baldwin, and Ann Wroe has written a beautiful account part fiction-part speculation-part fact which persuaded me of his survival and return to England in an unsuccessful attempt to claim his crown, and showed me also how wonderful a hybrid book like this could be. I do think that the young man that Henry VII named as Perkin was probably Prince Richard – at any rate he clearly was not called Perkin Warbeck, as there was nobody of that name living at Tournai, and his 'confession' seems as if it were dictated by his captors. (He gets his own mother's name wrong!) How he got to be accepted by all the crowned heads in Europe and to live at Henry's court as an honoured guest is part of the mystery of his life.
Philippa Gregory
Actually, I wouldn't ask him anything, because I don't think he's fit to plead. I would get a full medical check up including mental health and testing for Kells disease (a rare inherited blood disorder). When he is young he is such a wonderful prince, his deterioration is terrible to observe. I think there must be a physical reason.
Philippa Gregory
Some of my favourite men in history would be the gardeners John Tradescant (father, son and grandson). I write about them in Earthly Joys and Virgin Earth – my only 2 books with male narrators. In those novels you will also find my complete hero: John Lambert, one of Oliver Cromwell's most brilliant radical generals. I will confess also to a total girly crush on Robert Dudley who I write about in The Queen's Fool and in The Virgin's Lover. He is very attractive but the hero of The Virgin's Lover is probably the brilliant, selfless and under-rated William Cecil, who also appears in Earthly Joys.
Philippa Gregory
You can't help but see the similarities though you wouldn't expect it from a modern government – it's one of the most shameful things we have done. I have been thinking about how to write about their struggle but it's not really my story to tell. We have provided funds for English classes for the displaced communities and, perhaps, a Chagossian might tell their own story.
Philippa Gregory
Hi Latisha – I hope you do achieve your dream of becoming a historian or an archaeologist. I've been lucky enough to work with the Time Team specialists on a couple of digs and it's fascinating. The White Princess is in production with Starz and we are working on scripts now.
Philippa Gregory
Thank you, I am so glad that it was powerful for you. I think it was a major book for me to write, it came at a time when I was at a crossroads in my personal life and I think I was thinking about how a woman should be – in this world as well as the medieval one. The supernatural element in it frightened me while I was writing it, and I really don't know where it came from. Of all my books it is the least consciously written and plotted and I think this may be why it engages deeply with unconscious fears and symbols. I once lived in the cottage that I give to Morach and I knew the river that runs underground. It is a powerful primeval landscape and I loved writing about it. I am so glad that it spoke to you.
Philippa Gregory
I am sorry that you read this is 'violent and hateful'. I was trying to write a realistic description of a marriage which started after a really terrible battle but ended with a genuine union. I thought that Elizabeth of York – raised as a princess of England who knew her mother-in-law as a lady-in-waiting and then realised that she was a treasonous plotter, in love with Richard III and thus opposed and fearing his enemy and killer, would have genuine issues with marrying him. We know that he delayed the wedding so that she would not be crowned with him, which I think she would have found very insulting. We know that he was prepared to marry her sister instead of her – since for him it was a political marriage and any York princess would do. And all of the records that we have of their married life (and that is very little material) mention that it was his mother and not his wife who had the adjoining rooms, his mother who advised him. Elizabeth of York seems to have been short of money, and her own mother was under house arrest. Enough here for trouble in any marriage of love and theirs was definitely not a marriage of love in the beginning. Later, I think they came to be on good terms, as many arranged marriages end up, but he was unfaithful to her during the marriage and he proposed to a number of women after her death. I don't doubt that he felt her loss very painfully, I am certain she was a good wife. I believe that wars rarely have nice conclusions, and the Tudor murder of their rivals which went on till the line ended would suggest that the wars did not end.
Philippa Gregory
I'm sticking with the Tudors for now. My next novel will be on Henry's sisters. So happy to hear you enjoy my novels.
Philippa Gregory
Have a look on my website Mandy, you'll see I have covered all of the queens. They are all listed in chronological order so you should be able to find the ones you're looking for.
Philippa Gregory
The daughter of Kateryn Parr almost certainly died in childhood, infant mortality was very high then. Thomas Seymour did not keep her at his home, and in any case he was executed shortly after. As to paintings of Jacquetta – I am not aware of anything though we know that she was famously beautiful. She owned a beautiful book of hours which had been made for her predecessor the Duchess of Bedford (John of Lancaster's wife) and she would have stayed at Penshurst Place, which he renovated during his time in England. Jacquetta would have lived at Grafton in the manor house which was excavated a few years ago by Time Team. I was lucky enough to be there when they found a prayer book clasp, which may have been hers.
Philippa Gregory
Thank you, I do think that she was a powerful actor in her own life, and clearly she had her own ideas about religion and politics which we see her bring to the king. When I wrote the novel there was very little known about Mary Boleyn and there was very little evidence on birth order. One family will named Anne as the senior girl, and she seems to have been first choice for work in France and then for a great marriage. Since writing, other historians have researched Mary and now some think that she was the older daughter. It is interesting, but it is not really material, they were very close in age in any case. I am so glad that you enjoy my work so much, it is deeply absorbing for me too!
Philippa Gregory
The discovery that Jacquetta Rivers (Elizabeth Woodville's mother) had this fantastic family history with a family tree drawn up in complete seriousness that takes her back to a water goddess: Melusina. I already knew that her life was extraordinary and dramatic but to find this powerful myth at the heart of her story was a complete delight.
Philippa Gregory
I think the death of Margaret Pole and the persecution of her family by Henry VIII was the most shocking. Also, Henry's breaking his promise of pardon and the terrible punishments after the Pilgrimage of Grace. I describe these in my novel The King's Curse, and I think the whole novel shows the shocking deterioration in Henry from golden prince to merciless tyrant.
Philippa Gregory
I think it is very likely but I did not use it because I was writing from Elizabeth's point of view and I think that she might not have been consulted at this stage. I focussed on her story which was complex and full enough.
Philippa Gregory
Dear Maureen, I am sorry that you have misread my intentions in The Kingmaker's Daughter. I think the novel is a very affectionate and respectful re-telling of Anne's story in which she is shown as loyal (especially to her sister) loving (to her second husband, Richard), brave (throughout her father's campaign) and enterprising (when she runs away from George Duke of Clarence's control). Certainly I rather admire what we know of her, and I liked the character that I created. If you think that I have shown her as cruel to her mother then that is the history: she colluded in her mother's imprisonment so that she could inherit the fortune. But I don't think I suggest that she is overall an unlikeable person. I based the novel on the Michael Hicks biography and there are other fictional accounts that you might prefer. But I don't dislike her and I certainly don't 'hate' her, or any of these historical characters.
Philippa Gregory
It's one of the very interesting questions around Richard III. Certainly he had her and her sisters at his court and it was remarked that she wore gowns to match the queen – which seems odd. People gossiped that he was paying her a lot of attention, and after the death of his wife he was advised to publicly declare that he was not going to marry her, because Anne Neville's important family and connections would have been offended if he had been seen to slight his wife's memory. He would have had good reason to openly flirt with Elizabeth and give rise to the idea that they might marry, because one of Henry Tudor's claims for support was that he was betrothed to her, and would invade and put a York princess on the throne as his wife. If Richard could make it appear that she might marry him then he would win the old York/Woodville supporters to his side. Finally, and perhaps it is a strong piece of evidence, the historian George Buck recorded reading a letter from Elizabeth to the Duke of Buckingham asking him to support her attempt to marry Richard III in which she says that has given him 'her all'. This sounds rather like a love affair. The letter is now lost and of course it doesn't tell us anything about Richard's intentions towards Elizabeth – only about hers to him. Overall, I think that it is likely that he was thinking of marrying her for good political reasons, and he had engaged in a flirtation and perhaps a love affair with her which was all interrupted by the Battle of Bosworth. Perhaps the winner of the battle won the princess – and that was Henry Tudor.
Philippa Gregory
It most certainly does! Its a very beautiful spot, not far from my home in Yorkshire. Here's a short video of me speaking there https://youtu.be/gS7mV_z71gU
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