Award-winning historical novelist Philippa Gregory will discuss her first play, Richard, My Richard, with a Lancaster University Professor in Lancaster Castle's historic keep.

The discussion, on Saturday, December 6 (2pm to 4pm), with Alison Findlay, Professor of Renaissance Drama, will be illustrated with some dramatized extracts from the play.

Philippa will then take questions from the audience about the play which dramatizes an alternative biography to the infamous Richard of Shakespeare's Richard III.

Afterwards she will sign copies of her latest novel Boleyn Traitor.

Professor Findlay interviewed Philippa Gregory about the play at the British Shakespeare Association Conference, held in Leicester, in 2024. That interview will be published in The Routledge Companion to Shakespeare and Biography (2026).

Professor Findlay said: “I was delighted when Philippa accepted my invitation to come to Lancaster and explore the play in the historic setting of the Castle keep as part of a day-long event on ‘Richard, Lord of the North’, organised by the University's Regional Heritage Centre.”

“Having seen the play at Shakespeare North Playhouse in Prescot and studied the script, it will be fascinating to discuss how it portrays Richard and the clever women who wove histories around him, in a northern castle.

“His idealised vision of a medieval court contrasts strikingly with the fatal glamour of Henry VIII’s court depicted in Boleyn Traitor.”

Tickets for the afternoon session (£14 each) can be purchased from Lancaster University’s online store using the link below and just scrolling down.

All are welcome.