Tales Of Two Cities

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Philippa Gregory became fascinated by Anne Boleyn’s little-known sister Mary, and has published two fictional biographies on the ill-fated Boleyn siblings.

Tales of times past would be a common modifier for the two most recent works presented at Indian River Literary Society meetings. In February, Philippa Gregory spoke about her fictional history of Henry VIII’s reign in England as seen through the eyes of the women of his court. In March, author John Berendt regaled us with his story of Venice and the horrific fire
that destroyed the historic opera house there.

Let us begin with our visitor from across the pond, Philippa Gregory, who presented her most recent novel, The Boleyn Inheritance, to a packed house. Guided by history and the people making it, Gregory says she “hears their voices and finds a way to make them come alive.”

She is often credited for pioneering the genre of fictional biography whereby a real person is made to live again. Gregory accomplishes this through copious research, which she admits is her favorite part of the writing process, and her intuitive capability to rebirth her characters.

Though she was born in Kenya in 1954, Gregory’s family moved to England shortly afterwards, where she was educated in Bristol and later studied at a National Council for the Training of Journalists course in Cardiff. After working as a reporter for the Portsmouth News and BBC Radio, she obtained a B.A. in history at the University of Sussex and a Ph.D. in 18th-century literature from Edinburgh University.

Read the entire article in the Summer 2007 issue

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