A non-fiction companion to The White Queen, The Red Queen, and The Lady of the Rivers. Philippa Gregory and two historians, leading experts in their field, tell the extraordinary 'true' stories of the lives of these women who until now have been largely forgotten by history, their background and times, highlighting questions which are raised in the fiction and illuminating the novels.

Normal Women is a radical reframing of our nation’s story, the history of women in England for nine centuries.  From the Norman invasion in 1066 to the ordination of women into the Church of England in 1994. 

England 1648. A dangerous time for a woman to be different . . . Midsummer’s Eve, 1648, and England is in the grip of civil war between renegade King and rebellious Parliament. The struggle reaches every corner of the kingdom, even to the remote Tidelands – the marshy landscape of the south coast.  

Tidelands was released on 20 August 2019. 

Dark Tides is the sequel to Tidelands, and the second book of my Fairmile series. We pick up the family’s story in England, Italy and America, and discover if their fortunes have changed. It will be released in November 2020. 

It is 1685, England is on the brink of a renewed civil war against the Stuart kings and many families are bitterly divided. 

Descended from Melusina, the river goddess, Jacquetta has always had the gift of second sight. As a child visiting her uncle, she meets his prisoner, Joan of Arc, and sees her own power reflected in the young woman accused of witchcraft, before Joan is taken to a horrific death at the hands of the English rulers of France. 

Heiress to the red rose of Lancaster, Margaret Beaufort fervently believes that her house is the true ruler of England. Ignored by her sainted cousin Henry VI, mocked by her mother, married at age twelve, and endangered by childbirth, she vows to put her son on the throne. Naming him Henry, she sends him into exile and pledges him in marriage to the daughter of her sworn enemy.

The first in a stunning new series, The Cousins’ War, is set amid the tumult and intrigue of the Wars of the Roses. Internationally bestselling author Philippa Gregory brings this extraordinary family drama to vivid life through its women – beginning with Elizabeth Woodville, the White Queen.

Somewhere beyond the shores of England, a Pretender is mustering an army. He claims to be brother to the queen, and the true heir to the throne. But is he the lost boy sent into the unknown by his mother, the White Queen?  Or a counterfeit prince – a low-born enemy to Henry Tudor and his York princess wife?

The Kingmaker’s Daughter is the gripping story of the daughters of the man known as the 'Kingmaker', Richard Neville Earl of Warwick: the most powerful magnate in fifteenth-century England. Without a son and heir, he uses his daughters Anne and Isabel as pawns in his political games, and they grow up to be influential players in their own right. In this novel, her first sister story since The Other Boleyn Girl, Philippa Gregory explores the lives of two fascinating young women. 

Splendid and sumptuous historical novel from this internationally bestselling author, telling of the early life of Katherine of Aragon.

This is the story of deposed royal Margaret Pole, and her unique view of King Henry VIII’s stratospheric rise to power in Tudor England.

'There is only one bond that I trust and that is between a woman and her sisters. Only the three of us are indissoluble. We never take our eyes off each other. In love and rivalry, we always think of each other.'

Mary Boleyn catches the eye of Henry VIII when she comes to court as a girl of fourteen. Dazzled by the golden prince, Mary’s joy is cut short when she discovers that she is a pawn in the dynastic plots of her family. When the capricious king’s interest wanes, Mary is ordered to pass on her knowledge of how to please him to her friend and rival: her sister Anne.

COMING AUTUMN 2025

Spy. Pawn. Liar. Traitor.

Her words sent two queens to the scaffold.

Her secrets shaped a kingdom.

But her true story was buried

Until now.

Philippa Gregory brings the Boleyn Traitor out of the shadows in a groundbreaking tale of love, betrayal — and survival.

COMING AUTUMN 2025

The year is 1539 and the court of Henry VIII is increasingly fearful of the moods of the ageing sick king. With only a baby in the cradle for an heir, Henry has to take another wife and the dangerous prize of the crown of England is won by Anne of Cleves.

Why would a woman marry a serial killer?

Because she cannot refuse...

Kateryn Parr, a thirty-year-old widow in a secret affair with a new lover, has no choice when a man old enough to be her father who has buried four wives – King Henry VIII – commands her to marry him.

At a time when an innocent woman could be burned for heresy or strangled for witchcraft, to spy on the queen for the love of a traitor was the most dangerous choice of all. Into a Tudor court on the brink of treason comes Hannah, a young Jewish girl on the run from the Inquisition.

As a new queen, Elizabeth I faces two great dangers. The French threaten to invade Scotland. But more perilous still is her passion for the convicted traitor, Robert Dudley. Dudley is already married. Amy, his wife, refuses to set her beloved husband free to marry the queen, but she cannot prevent him from becoming the favourite of the plotting, pleasure-seeking court. Yet the queen must marry.

‘How long do you have?’ I force a laugh.

‘Not long,’ he says very quietly. ‘They have confirmed your sentence of death. I am so sorry. You are to be beheaded tomorrow. We don’t have long at all.’

Two women competing for a man’s heart. Two queens fighting to the death for dominance. The untold story of Mary Queen of Scots

Beatrice Lacey, as strong-minded as she is beautiful, refuses to conform to the social customs of her time. Destined to lose her family name and beloved Wideacre estate once she is wed, Beatrice will use any means necessary to protect her ancestral heritage. Seduction, betrayal, even murder – Beatrice's passion is without apology or conscience. 

The Wideacre estate is bankrupt. The villagers are living in poverty and Wideacre Hall is a smoke-blackened ruin. But in the Dower House two children are being raised in protected innocence. Equal claimants to the inheritance of Wideacre, rivals for the love of the village, they are tied by a secret childhood betrothal but forbidden to marry. Only one can be the favoured child.

Meridon, a desolate Romany girl, is determined to escape the hard poverty of her childhood. Riding bareback in a travelling show, while her sister Dandy risks her life on the trapeze, Meridon dedicates herself to freeing them both from danger and want. But Dandy, beautiful, impatient, thieving, grabs too much, too quickly.

The is 1460 and all signs point to it being the end of the world.

Accused of heresy and expelled from his monastery, Luca Vero is recruited by a mysterious stranger to record the end of the days. His first mission takes him to a nunnery where the women are showing terrible signs of possession under an imprisoned Lady Abbess – Isolde.

Luca Vero is a member of the secret Order of Darkness, tasked by his master to uncover the truth behind strange happenings. Together with Lady Isolde, her friend and confidant Ishraq, Luca’s manservant Freize, and Brother Peter, Luca travels across medieval Europe – seeking out the signs of the end of days, judging the supernatural and testing the new science.

He is a traveller in a time of discovery, and the greatest gardening pioneer of his day. Yet John Tradescant is a man of humble birth, trusted by the kingdom’s greatest leaders: politicians, aristocrats, even royalty. Surrounded by luxury and intrigue, Tradescant gives all his attention to his magnificent gardens, in the midst of a society on the brink of upheaval.

Virgin Earth is a tour-de-force of powerful politics, personal discovery and glorious gardening details from one of our most acclaimed novelists. John Tradescant the younger has inherited his father’s unique collection of plants along with his unerring ability to be able to nurture them. But as gardener to Charles I, he confronts an unbearable dilemma when England descends into Civil War. Fleeing from the chaos, John travels to the Royalist colony of Virginia in America. 

This is a haunting story of a woman’s desire in a time of turbulence. Alys joins the nunnery to escape hardship and poverty but finds herself thrown back into the outside world when Henry VIII’s wreckers destroy her sanctuary.

The devastating consequences of the slave trade in 18th century Bristol are explored through the powerful but impossible attraction of well-born Frances and her Yoruban slave, Mehuru.

Fallen Skies is an extraordinary story of the turmoil and ugly legacy of the First World War from the bestselling author of Wideacre. 

Lily Valance wants to forget the war; her father has been killed in France and several friends are dead or maimed beyond recognition. She wants to enjoy the world of the 1920s, a world of music, singing, laughter and pleasure. So when she meets dashing Stephen Winters, a decorated hero back from the front, she is drawn to his wealth and status. But Stephen is a man deeply scarred, still troubled by nightmares of the fighting on the plains of Flanders, alienated from his comfortable home, his family firm of solicitors, and close to no-one but his shell shocked mute batman, Coventry.

Alice Hartley is a woman in her prime. Yet she's not happy.

Her husband refuses to respond to her mature delights, leaving her powerless as his interest strays elsewhere. But a chance encounter brings her the opportunity to escape and embrace the taste of freedom.

Dr Louise Case has the right career, the right country cottage and a commitment-free relationship with a fellow academic. According to contemporary codes, it’s all very correct – except that Louise begins to suspect it’s far from perfect.

It was easy for Elizabeth. She married the man she loved, bore him two children and made a home for him which was the envy of their friends. It was harder for Ruth.

For years, Isobel Latimer has composed serious novels for serious people, but to dwindling acclaim and ever-more dwindling gain. Now her husband is ill and she must carry their financial burden alone, and in secret. But if the public don’t want careful moral fables any longer, why not provide an outrageous tale of sex and satanism, and an author to match.

My first, and to date my only, book of collected short stories where I worked on the idea of describing as little as possible, so the short story is filled with emotion but very little action. The story of the title Bread and Chocolate was inspired by a baking Jesuit. (yes, really).

These three stories were originally published under the titles Princess Florizella, Princess Florizella and the Wolves and Princess Florizella and the Giant.

The sequel to The Princess Rules sees rebel princess, Princess Florizella, going on even more adventures, but this time, she also has a little brother in tow...

This third volume in The Princess Rules series sees the feisty princess take her baby brother and best friend, Bennett, on another round of adventures together.