We are absolutely delighted that historian Helen Castor has agreed to take part in our ‘Meet The Author’ series of events at Warwick Words. Helen is no stranger to Warwick, having been schooled here and also coming here a few years ago  to talk about her previous fascinating book on the Paston Letters which received terrific reviews, was longlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize in 2005 and won the English Association’s Beatrice White Prize in 2006. Helen is a historian of medieval England, and a Fellow of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge.  She lives in London with her husband and son.

This time Helen will be  talking about ‘She-Wolves: The Women Who Ruled England Before Elizabeth’ which will be published to coincide with the Festival. This is the fascinating story of how royal power came to lie in female hands for the first time under the Tudor queens – and of the four women who came before them and who, whilst never reigning monarchs, held great power.

Four hundred years before Edward’s death, Matilda, daughter of Henry I and granddaughter of William the Conqueror, came tantalisingly close to securing her hold on the power of the crown. And between the 12th and the 15th centuries three more exceptional women – Eleanor of Aquitaine, Isabella of France, and Margaret of Anjou – discovered, as queens consort and dowager, how much was possible if the presumptions of male rule were not confronted so explicitly.

The stories of these women – told here in all their vivid humanity – illustrate the paradox which the female heirs to the Tudor throne had no choice but to negotiate. Man was the head of woman; and the king was the head of all. How, then, could a woman be king, how could royal power lie in female hands?

An event to look forward to which will be full of interest from one of our top historians, and a local girl made good to boot!