Hello and welcome to a History of Europe Key Battles podcast.

Today is a special episode where I have an interview with a very successful historical author, Philippa Gregory.

Philippa has written novels set in several different historical periods, though primarily the Tudor period and the 16th

century. Some of her novels have won awards and have been adapted into television dramas.

The most successful of her novels has been The Other Berlin Girl, published in 2001 and adapted

for a BBC television. Philippa has also published a series of books about the Plantagenets,

the ruling houses that preceded the tutors, and the War of the Roses.

Her first book, The White Queen, published in 2009,

centres on the life of Elizabeth Woodville, the wife of Edward VIII.

The Red Queen, published the year after, is about Margaret Beaufort, the wife of Edward D'4th. The Red Queen, published the year after, is about Margaret

Beaufort, the mother of Henry the 7th and grandmother to Henry the 8th.

So, hello, Philip, it's so great to have you on the show.

Thank you, it's lovely to be here.

I'd like to talk first about your new book, Dawnlands. It's the third in a series of book, The Fairwell. You're more well known for books on the Tudors and the War of the Roses, but this is a bit different based on the 17th century, more on the lives of ordinary people, rather than the royalty and the royal court. Could you tell me why you made a choice to go in this direction?

Well, I wanted to expand really into the lives of ordinary people,

and particularly ordinary women.

A lot of my books that have been set in the Tudor courts and the Plantagener courts

have actually been about the ordinary women in the courts. So, you know, the really famous

the other Bolin girl is about Mary Bolin, who when we meet her is just a relatively ordinary girl.

She's from an aristocratic family, but she's not royal. And this was a kind of expansion of that

that I wanted to talk about a family who are just working

people, but they're caught up in the royal story as so many people were in England at the

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