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The British historian on the drama and resonance of the lives of Richard II and Henry VI, the writers she most admires and the book she wishes she had writtenHelen Castor, 56, is an academic, author and broadcaster whose acclaimed books include She-Wolves: The Women Who Ruled England Before Elizabeth and Joan of Arc, both of which she also presented as television documentaries. She is a fellow commoner at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. Her new book, The Eagle and the Hart: The Tragedy of Richard II and Henry IV, explores political rivalries and the most audacious coup of the 14th century. It has been described as a “dazzling tour de force of epic royal history” by Simon Sebag Montefiore and a nonfiction book of the year by Andrew O’Hagan.What drew you to the story of these two men?It encapsulates everything I love about medieval history. I’m interested in power and how it worked in an age where you’ve got no standing army, no professional police force, no modern communications – how does a government in Westminster rule a whole country? You’ve got these two individuals – first cousins, almost exactly the same age but such utterly different men – brought to the point where the failings of one mean that the other has to take over, causing a whole different set of problems. If you wrote it in fiction it would look too neat. And of course the fact that Shakespeare has told their story so gloriously is a whole other layer drawing you in. Continue reading...