You know that feeling when you're watching a period drama and you just know something is off, but you can't stop watching? That’s the Philippa Gregory experience. Some historians literally want to throw her paperbacks across the room. Others think she's the best thing to happen to the 16th century since the invention of the ruff.
Honestly, author philippa gregory books aren't just novels; they are a whole cultural ecosystem. She’s the woman who basically single-handedly convinced the world that Mary Boleyn was the "other" one and that Margaret Beaufort might have been a cold-blooded killer. But there's a huge gap between the "history" people think they know from her books and what actually happened in the dusty archives.
The Queen of Revisionist History
Gregory didn't just start writing about kings. She has a PhD. That's the part that catches people off guard. She knows her stuff, but she chooses to look at it through a very specific, often controversial, lens.
Take The Other Boleyn Girl. It’s her monster hit. Before that book came out in 2001, Mary Boleyn was a footnote. A ghost. Gregory turned her into a protagonist. She gave her a voice, a rivalry, and a heart. But she also turned Anne Boleyn into a bit of a villainous caricature, which—if you talk to any serious Tudor scholar—is a massive point of contention.
Why the "Historical" Label is Tricky
The thing about author philippa gregory books is that she writes them from the perspective of the women. That sounds great, right? It is. We need more of that. The problem is that when history is silent—because men didn't bother to record what women were doing—Gregory fills those silences with some pretty wild guesses.
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- The Witchcraft Angle: In The White Queen, she leans hard into the idea that Elizabeth Woodville and her mother, Jacquetta, practiced Melusina-inspired water magic. It makes for a great story. It makes for a terrible biography.
- The Princes in the Tower: If you read The Red Queen, you'll walk away thinking Margaret Beaufort (Henry VII’s mom) was the one who murdered those boys in the Tower. Is there proof? None. Not a shred. But it makes Margaret a fascinating, terrifying character.
Sorting Through the Series
If you’re trying to tackle the catalog, don't just grab a random book. You’ll get lost. She has dozens. The main meat of her work is the Plantagenet and Tudor Novels. There are 16 of them now.
- The Cousins' War: This covers the Wars of the Roses. It's where you find The White Queen and The Lady of the Rivers.
- The Tudor Court: This is the Henry VIII era. The Other Boleyn Girl lives here.
- The Order of Darkness: This is her YA foray. It’s got a bit of a supernatural/mystery vibe set in the 1450s.
- The Fairmile Series: Her newer stuff. It starts with Tidelands in the 17th century. It’s much more focused on "ordinary" women rather than queens.
Her latest release, Boleyn Traitor (2025), goes back to the well, focusing on Jane Boleyn. You might know her as Lady Rochford. She’s the one who supposedly "betrayed" Anne Boleyn and later Catherine Howard. Gregory loves a misunderstood woman, and she’s clearly trying to give Jane the same "revisionist" treatment she gave Mary.
The Accuracy Versus Entertainment Debate
People get really heated about this. You've probably seen the Reddit threads. Some fans treat her books like textbooks. Please don't do that.
Gregory herself has said she uses modern speech to make the books readable. She doesn't want you tripping over "thee" and "thou." That’s a smart move for a novelist. But it also strips away some of the "otherness" of the past. It makes the Tudors feel like they're in a modern soap opera, just with better clothes.
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The Real Expert Take
Real historians, like Tracy Borman or the late David Starkey, have a complicated relationship with her. They appreciate that she brings millions of readers to the period. They hate that they have to spend half their time debunking myths she popularized.
For instance, the idea that Anne Boleyn and her brother George committed incest. It’s a huge plot point in Gregory's work. In reality? It was almost certainly a lie cooked up by Thomas Cromwell to get rid of them. When you read author philippa gregory books, you're often reading the rumors of the time as if they were facts.
How to Actually Read These Books
If you want to enjoy them without losing your mind over the facts, here is the secret: treat them as "What If" stories.
What if the Yorkist queen really was a descendant of a water goddess? What if the "virgin" Elizabeth I wasn't so virginal? Once you stop looking for a history lesson, the books are actually incredible. She’s a master of pacing. She knows how to make a 500-page book feel like a beach read.
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Start Here
- For the Drama: The Other Boleyn Girl. Obviously.
- For the "Villain" Perspective: The Red Queen. Margaret Beaufort is deliciously intense.
- For Something Different: Tidelands. It’s a slower burn, but the research into 17th-century midwifery and poverty is top-notch.
- The Big Non-Fiction: If you actually want the truth, read her 2023 book Normal Women. It’s a 900-year history of England that isn't a novel. It shows she really does have the academic chops when she isn't trying to sell a thriller.
Practical Steps for History Lovers
Don't just stop at the fiction. Use these books as a gateway. If a character in one of the author philippa gregory books fascinates you, go look up their actual entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
Compare Gregory's Elizabeth Woodville with the one in Alison Weir’s biographies. Watch the BBC documentaries Gregory has presented—she’s actually a great presenter and often adds the nuance there that gets lost in her novels.
Ultimately, Gregory has done more to make people care about the "forgotten" women of the English throne than almost any other writer. Just remember that her books are a mirror of the feelings of the time, not a transcript of the events. Enjoy the gowns and the schemes, but keep your phone nearby to Google the real dates.
To get the most out of your reading, try following the internal chronology of the Plantagenet and Tudor series rather than the publication dates. Start with The Lady of the Rivers and work your way forward to The Other Queen. This lets you see the dynastic shifts happen in real-time, even if the "magic" and the "murders" are mostly there to keep you turning the pages late into the night.