Philippa Gregory’s book tour, which brought her to Highlands last weekend, offered more than just an author signing. It doubled as a history lesson for those already enamored with her fiction.

Gregory has had a dozen books published in the U.S., most notably the Tudor series which opened with “The Other Boleyn Girl,” released as a major motion picture this past February starring Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson.

Fans line up to purchase books at Highlands Falls Country Club on Saturday. Here, they are being waited on by Katie Pierce dressed in period clothing. The dress was used as a model for the portrait used on one of Philippa Gregory’s book covers.

On her fourth North American book tour, Gregory initially selected the mountains of North Carolina as her only southeastern landing, later adding Charlotte to the mix as her 10-city book tour grew to 14.

Gregory attended a Friday night showing of the film, “The Other Boleyn Girl,” in Highlands. It is the first of her novels to be made into a major motion picture. As part of the evening, a dress from the film was on display and local performers and employees of Cyrano’s Books, who hosted the event, wore gowns which had been used as models for the book covers.

Saturday followed with a luncheon and lecture at Highlands Falls Club where Gregory, delightfully charming, discussed her novels and love for the Tudor period.

Philippa Gregory and her husband took time to speak with Highlands resident Ronnie Spilton.

Tudor history as it has been passed to us, said Gregory, was controlled completely by the Tudors themselves and devoured by the Victorians. They kept no letters and maintained an official historian to record history as they saw fit.

“There were no personal journals or diaries – they were not very interested in personal development,” she quipped, wandering among the 100 guests at Saturday’s luncheon.

Victorians looked to the Tudors as an example and, at times, painted a slightly rosier picture of the era to place the Tudors on a pedestal out of their own need for inpiration.

“They needed to see that England has always been happy, prosperous, and separate from those sneaky French and horrible Germans. It was the very mortar on which they built their history,” she said.

Gregory’s first novel, “Wideacre,” based on a fictional Beatrice Lacey, was written while Gregory worked to obtain her PhD in 18th century literature. Finding herself without work and with a lot of time, she sat down and began writing her own novel after reading 200 18th century novels for her dissertation. It gained international acclaim, and so, said Gregory, she continued writing.

She faults the historians for creating twodimensional women, as fictionalized in historic text as they are in the novels — perhaps more so. But these women were dynamic, she said. They were more than the narrative “divorced, beheaded, died/divorced, beheaded, survived.” Henry VIII’s wife Catherine of Aragon was widely regarded as a saint for never having been able to tell a lie.

“Yet, she slept with one husband while she told her second husband, ‘No, I have never slept with another.”

“Of course she can. She’s a woman. That is what we do best,” joked Gregory.

There was Jane Seymour, the perfect wife – married quickly, didn’t cost much, delivered a baby and died in childbirth. The wives of Henry the VIII are noted but less than notable.

Anne Boleyn, however, was able to capture his attention for six years, “like a cat on a hot tin roof.”

Gregory said these are the woman who capture the imagination and begged their tales be told.

Her latest novel wraps around the world of Mary, Queen of Scots – a woman Gregory first believed to be “too grand, too beautiful, too doomed, too all round romantic and nonsensical for me to take much of an interest in her.”

She was from France, a Roman Catholic, married three times and lost three kingdoms.

“Which smacks of carelessness. I shared these prejudices,” she said.

She had to step outside of the prejudice and examine Mary on the record, not in hindsight. “I put myself in her place and had to think, if you were there, in the moment, what decision would you have made? She doesn’t know she’s not going to win. She doesn’t know it’s not going to work.”

Mary Queen of Scots was held captive by England in the home of George Tolbert and Bess of Hardwick. Bess has since become one of Gregory’s favorite characters. She was, unlike most women of the time, an entrepreneur, who ran the home – and ran it as “a tight ship.”

“Her greatest tragedy comes when the most extravagant woman in the world becomes their house guest.” Mary Queen of Scots had to be served 32 courses at a meal, not to eat, but to have the option, and to serve the 100 guests who accompanied her. Each night, she washed her face in white wine. And, she was beautiful.

“It was as if you came home and your husband, said “Hello dear, Angelina Jolie will be staying with us for a while, hope you don’t mind.”

The stay eventually robbed Bess of both her money and her husband. The tale is written through the eyes of three accounts, Bess, Mary and George.

As in each of her books, Gregory manages to take a piece of history and place it in the hearts of the present.

Her entire series in historical chronological order (not the order in which they were written), are The Constant Princess (Catherine of Aragon); The Other Boleyn Girl, Mary and Anne Boleyn; The Boleyn Inheritance, Jane Boleyn and Anne of Cleeves; The Queen’s Fool, a girl in the court of Mary Tudor; The Virgin Lover, Elizabeth I.

Gregory is also known for her series of books, The Wideacre Trilogy. It is estimated that Gregory has more than 3.5 million copies of her books in print in the U.S.