The Estes Valley Library introduced locals to British author Philippa Gregory through a live online seminar in October.
The event was open to library patrons across the country, including Estes Park, thanks to membership in the Library Speakers Consortium. Readers of Gregory’s famous historical romances had a chance to sit in on an hour-long interview with the British author.
Gregory is the author of myriad books, more than a dozen of which focus on the Tudor period. One of her most well-known books is “The Other Boleyn Girl,” which was made into a 2008 movie starring Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson.
Her most recent book is a return to that family. “Boleyn Traitor” focuses on Jane Boleyn, the wife of George. George Boleyn was the brother of Queen Ann Boleyn and Mary Boleyn.
A short refresher: King Henry VIII had an affair with Mary Boleyn, who served at his court. Later, he had an affair with Anne and married her. He also had her killed, claiming, among other charges, that she had had an incestuous affair with her brother, George.
Jane was a lady-in-waiting at Henry’s court who served all of his queens except for the last.
“It’s a terribly interesting period in history,” said Gregory, explaining why she returned to the Tudors. She wanted to delve into Jane’s mind.
“She has niggled me,” said Gregory, meaning she worried for many years about Jane’s role in court affairs. Was Jane really the evil woman historians have made her out to be?
Gregory said historians have painted Jane as a sexually perverse, mentally unstable political back-stabber. Some historians claim Jane testified against her husband because he truly did have relations with his sister, Queen Anne.
But Gregory thinks Jane was a very clever woman indeed to have survived for as long as she did at Henry’s court.
Henry VIII, she reminded her viewers, was a shockingly covert narcissist and possibly a psychopath. He never showed any regret about killing his wives.
“I have a very different attitude now about Jane Boleyn,” said Gregory. “Not the standard or traditional view.”
She suggested that if Jane were alive today, she would want us to know that a domestic tyrant or a political tyrant – and Henry was both – has to be confronted the first time he raises his hand to a woman.
But in those days, women had no power to stop men from sexual abuse. Not at court, not at any level of society.
And for all her cleverness and her ability to bob and weave around the political intrigues at court, Jane Boleyn was executed in 1542.
Her death came about due to her association with Catherine Howard, the King’s fifth wife. Jane was rumored to have assisted in the queen’s treasonous love affairs.
Gregory said she likes to write her historical novels in the first-person, present tense for a quick and easy way to avoid “the curse of the historian,” which is knowing how the story ends.
“I’ve been writing about this period in history for 30 years now,” she said.
She follows a process that consists of submersion in all that is known about a character — reading history, visiting places they lived, and sometimes meeting a character’s biographer.
“I go for long walks with my dog and then there’s a moment when I’m ready as a novelist to start writing,” she said. “A year later, I rewrite.”
Her focus comes with the second draft.
Gregory said she feels like she knows all of Henry’s wives, but her two favorites are the first wife and the last wife, both named Catherine. Catherine of Aragon had a tragic end, but her early life was excellent. Catherine Parr was a great scholar and a profound religious thinker.
There’s no doubt that Gregory is well-versed in history, but there remain criticisms of her work. She has been accused of blurring the lines between historical fact and romantic fiction. And yet she has also led many people from her books to further study of the Tudor period.
Not many writers can make that claim.
Elisabeth Sherwin is a seasoned journalist who teaches memoir writing at the Estes Valley Rec Center. She holds a master’s in journalism from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, worked as a copy editor at the Los Angeles Herald Examiner and the San Francisco Examiner, and was a reporter, editor, book reviewer, and copy editor at the Davis (Calif.) Enterprise. She also taught journalism at UC Davis Extension. She lives in Allenspark. Her book reviews and other writings can be found on her website, Printed Matter, or click here to see her reviews published on the Estes Valley Voice.