Author Interview

Bestselling author Philippa Gregory talks to Hannah Stephenson about feminism and social media

Ardent feminist and bestselling historical novelist Philippa Gregory wants to curb social stereotypes such as fairytale princesses and handsome princes, and she pursues the subject in her latest children’s book The Princess Rules.

First published as three books from 1988-1992 and now reimagined in the present day, it is set in a classic fairy tale world, in which princesses are expected to follow the “Princess Rules” – which predominantly involve looking beautiful and eating next to nothing – it centres on Princess Florizella, a sassy, forthright character who deliberately flouts those rules, preferring to go off on thrill-seeking adventures.

It is a thinly-veiled satire highlighting the female stereotypes created in so many fairy tales over the years, countered by Gregory’s “anthem to independence”.

The original had been out of print for 10 years but was an unusual book for its time, notes the bestselling author, best known for her historical novels such as The Other Boleyn Girl, which was adapted into a film starring Scarlett Johansson and Natalie Portman, and The White Queen.

“The heroine is a princess who is very active and self-willed. I’d have called her a feminist then and I call her a feminist now,” says Gregory, 65. “When it came to be republished there were many things I wanted to address, because the times have changed so much and the world has moved on. My views have changed a lot as well, so I rewrote it. It’s much more explicitly against the convention of female passivity than the previous one. Pleasingly, I think I’ve become more radical. I think society has caught up with some of the views I had then, so most people think it’s good that women are agents of their own lives,” she says.

She believes there’s more pressure than ever on girls to look a certain way, thanks to social media, and worries about people aspiring to idealised pictures which have been edited.

Gregory was born in Kenya and moved to Bristol with her family when she was two. A former journalist, she read English literature at Sussex University, but fell in love with history, changing her degree option. She later attended Edinburgh University and while there wrote her debut novel, Wideacre, the first in a trilogy.

She now writes at her home, a farm on the North Yorkshire moors, where she lives with her third husband Anthony Mason. She has two children and four stepchildren, and wrote the new version of The Princess Rules for her two grandsons.

She agrees the strong female characters in her books lend themselves to adaptations. The Other Boleyn Girl was adapted for both the big screen and TV. She hasn’t always been happy with the finished results. One of the difficulties is, when you hand your book over for film production, you literally sell it. Calling the BBC’S drama version of The Other Boleyn Girl “interesting” is about as far as she will go.

However, she has written the screenplay for, and is co-producer of, a movie adaptation of her novel The Taming Of The Queen, which is now in the planning stages.

“It’s a learning curve for me,” she says.

● The Princess Rules by Philippa Gregory, Harpercollins Children’s Books, £12.99.