Author Philippa Gregory, 56, wrote historical novel The Other Boleyn Girl, which became a film starring
Scarlett Johansson and
Natalie Portman.
Will this series of books have the same appeal as your Tudor ones?
That was the main question. I told the publishers the Plantagenets were madder, badder and sexier than the Tudors and they took a chance on it. The first book in this series, The White Queen, has sold better on first publication than any of my others. People have already seen a lot of material about the Tudors and this has all that excitement, it’s just set a little bit before.
Do you have a typical reader?
No, they span a large age, gender and race range. I’m selling in 80 countries including places like Israel, Russia, Korea and South America. I meet 12-year-olds at events who love the books and I got a letter from a reader who is 96 the other day.
What’s the appeal?
There’s an element of escapism but there’s also a feeling that what I’m writing about is part of everyone’s history and they know these events actually took place. I got a wonderful letter from a young woman whose husband left her and as he walked out with his friends carrying the furniture, she said: ‘I thought of Catherine of Aragon and didn’t cry,’ which is so moving. I’ve written a story about a woman who suffered terribly at the hands of her husband and that’s given a modern woman a bit of courage when she needed it.
What are the key ingredients of your books?
It will be about a woman you hadn’t heard much about before. It will have accurate historical research so you can have faith in the story. It’s going to be a page-turner from the start. It will be quite pacy and dramatic with life and death dilemmas, and it will have passionate scenes. It’s not a dry, dusty account of what happened.
Who has been your favourite figure to write about?
Mary Boleyn because she’s been so great for me. Catherine of Aragon is also a favourite because people focus on her when she was the old wife Henry VIII wanted to leave but she had an extraordinary life before that.
Have you got any favourite pieces of trivia?
Catherine of Aragon was the first person to introduce marmalade to Britain. She also introduced lettuce.
Don’t you want to abolish the royal family?
Not personally. They’re perfectly agreeable people but I don’t think we need royalty in Britain today. It’s time we grew up as a country. We don’t need figures from history who were considered semi-divine. It’s time to be citizens, not subjects.
How are you perceived as a writer? Do critics look down on authors who don’t write literary fiction?
I wouldn’t say I write in a genre, I’d say I write literature. Ever since the 1950s there’s been a drive for an obscure type of literature which isn’t widely read or enjoyed which is regarded as important. But against that there are very fine novelists publishing widely who people enjoy like Iain Banks, Tracy Chevalier and Hilary Mantel. People understand you can write something accessible which is popular but which is also good quality writing.
What’s been the highlight of your career?
I don’t want to sound pious but 20 years ago I went to the Gambia to research a book. I met a schoolmaster who wanted to put a well in his schoolyard. I gave him the money. He wrote to me saying the children used the well to grow vegetables and to drink from and it had really changed their lives. He asked if I’d help with a well for the neighbouring school and now we’ve put 140 wells in rural schools. Some schools have been able to grow cash crops to pay for inoculation and adult literacy programmes and that’s something I’m tremendously proud of.
The Red Queen is out on Thursday published by Simon & Schuster.
