The verdict of history on Katherine appears to be that she was out of her depth in Henry’s court and too generous with her favours. What persuaded you that her story needed to be told?

My considered opinion is that this – the ‘silly girl’ view – is unsophisticated, and fails to grasp the complexity of Katherine and the situation. It’s glaringly obvious to me that Katherine was a sexually confident young woman (in her sexual relationships with men – started when she was thirteen – she always had the upper hand, chose her lovers and moved on when it suited her) to whom her own small circle of friends and acquaintances were in thrall.That’s far more interesting than the ‘silly girl’ story we’ve tended to be fed, and, if you accept it, the whole arc of her rise and fall makes sense in a way that, with the ‘silly girl’ view, it never quite does.