Philippa Gregory is the internationally bestselling author well known for books on the Tudor and Plantagenet families including The Other Boleyn Girl, The White Queen, and the Last Tudor. Philippa shares why she reads as often as possible, regardless of what mood she is in.
Where Angels Fear to Tread by E. M. Forster
In an account of the collision of two cultures, an English widow on a grand tour of the continent surprises her stodgy relatives by marrying a penniless Italian.
Enter the provincial town of Middlemarch, circa 1830, where the individual destinies of tradespeople, middle classes, and country gentry shape and are shaped by the community.
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
In nineteenth-century England, two sisters are drawn into unhappy romances despite the cool judgement of one and the emotional intensity of the other.
Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne
A forerunner of psychological fiction, and considered a landmark work for its innovative use of narrative devices, Sterne’s topsy-turvy novel was both celebrated and vilified when first published. Originally released in nine separate volumes, it is in effect an exercise about the difficulties of writing.
A rich and colorful portrait of Elizabethan life draws on historical sources to provide a speculative portrait of Christopher Marlowe, following the life of the enigmatic playwright in context to the life and work of William Shakespeare and its enduring literary legacy.
