Congratulations on being shortlisted for the Wolfson History Prize 2025 for The Eagle and the Hart. How does it feel to be shortlisted and what would winning mean to you?
To become a small part of the Wolfson History Prize’s own history – to be associated with its objectives, its distinguished judges, and the extraordinary list of past winners and nominees – is a huge honour. To win would be life-changing in more than one way, so I’m trying not to think about it – just letting the delight of the shortlisting sink in.
For someone who is interested in medieval history, what wider content (books, places, films) would you recommend?
There’s no better place to start than Shakespeare’s history plays, in any shape or form, to which I’d add Zeffirelli’s film of Romeo and Juliet. The novels of Hilary Mantel and Dorothy Dunnett. For anyone lucky enough to have the chance to go to Italy, nothing compares to Florence or Venice in winter; I don’t think I’ve had a more magical experience than sitting alone with the Gozzoli frescoes in the chapel of the Medici palace in Florence. And, obviously, Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
Why do you feel it is important to celebrate history writing?
The importance of this prize is the celebration of both history and writing. Exploring the past matters: seeing vanished times and places through different eyes, standing in other shoes, working out what questions to ask, finding answers by piecing together fragments of evidence. But communicating the results of that exploration depends on lucid and evocative writing. Both parts of the process are not just fascinating, but essential.
Was there a particular writer, book, experience or event that first made you interested in history?
When I was about five, my parents bought me Jean Plaidy’s The Young Elizabeth and The Young Mary, Queen of Scots, and that was it: the Tudors, then back into the middle ages. I’m still there.
The Wolfson Foundation awards grants to a wide variety of museums, historic buildings and landscapes. Do you have a favourite historical place, or a place that inspired you?
I grew up near Kenilworth Castle, which was a wonderful historical playground: running up and down its green slopes in the shadow of John of Gaunt’s great hall, pretending (when I wasn’t running) to be Elizabeth I. It was a joy to go back with my son when he was little and see him take over the historical drama. Now, it’s Westminster Abbey that makes me shiver, because the past I write about is still alive inside those walls.
Read an extract from The Eagle and the Hart: The Tragedy of Richard II and Henry IV.
Top images: ‘The Eagle and the Hart’ book cover; portrait of Helen Castor (c) Stuart Simpson
