Lesley Bates meets celebrated popular author Philippa Gregory ahead of her visit to Salisbury Cathedral. WHEN, IN October 1517, German priest and theologian Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses, challenging the power of the Catholic Church in Rome, to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, it sent political and religious shock waves across Europe.

According to bestselling historical novelist Philippa Gregory, it also set in train events that gave women in England a voice for the first time as religious reform took hold of the court of Henry VIII.

Philippa will be one of the speakers at Salisbury Cathedral’s Reformation Study Day on October 28, almost 500 years to the day since Luther lit the spark for what was to become the Church of England. She will be there at the joint behest of the cathedral and Salisbury Literary Festival. It is by no means her first visit to the cathedral.

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