Literary Birthday – 9 January – Philippa Gregory

Happy Birthday, Philippa Gregory, born 9 January 1954.

Philippa Gregory Quotes

1. I have a great liking for the first person narrative because it gets the reader into the head of the character; it takes the reader back in time, with a sense of immediacy that makes them feel they are there.
2. Because all books are forbidden when a country turns to terror. The scaffolds on the corners, the list of things you may not read. These things always go together.
3. Katherine of Aragon was speaking out for the women of the country, for the good wives who should not be put aside just because their husbands had taken a fancy to another, for the women who walked the hard road between kitchen, bedroom, church and childbirth. For the women who deserved more than their husband’s whim.
4. Although some people think I am a romantic novelist I have always thought of myself as a rather gritty radical historian.
5. I love reading and I love thinking – the reason that I love my books so much is that in order to write them I have to read and to think for years at a time about the same period of time.
6. I believe in me, in my view of the world. I believe in my responsibility for my own destiny, guilt for my own sins, merit for my own good deeds, determination of my own life. I don’t believe in miracles, I believe in hard work.
7. Words have weight, something once said cannot be unsaid. Meaning is like a stone dropped into a pool; the ripples will spread and you cannot know what back they wash against.

Read: The Writers Write Interview With Philippa Gregory (2006) and Writing Tips From Philippa Gregory.

Philippa Gregory is a British writer of historical novels. She was an established historian and writer when she discovered her interest in the Tudor period and wrote The Other Boleyn Girl. This was subsequently made into a TV drama and a major film. The novel has given birth to sequels that include The Queen’s Fool, The Virgin’s Lover, The Constant Princess, The Boleyn Inheritance, and The Other Queen. She has since written many more novels. Gregory was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2021 Birthday Honours for services to literature and to charity in the UK and the Gambia. Follow her on Facebook.

 Source for Image: Larry D. Moore, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Philippa_gregory_2011.jpg

by Amanda Patterson

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