Top historians gather in Gloucester for 'prestigious' festival

Gloucester History Festival is underway with three days of events led by some of the UK's top historians.

About 30 authors, academics and broadcasters are talking on a range of historic subjects in the city's Blackfriars Priory.

The festival has grown to become one of the biggest and "most prestigious" in the UK, according to organisers.

"It's a festival that you can't really miss if you're a history lover," said contributor, Dr Estelle Paranque.

The veteran BBC correspondent, Jeremy Bowen, will be sharing his decades of experience from frontline war reporting with audiences at the 13th Century venue.

Speaking to BBC Gloucestershire, festival president, Dr Janina Ramirez, said: "I've seen it sort of double year by year and then we had the pandemic, which could have been the nail in the coffin for the festival.

"But actually it forced us to do something which I'd wanted to do right from the start, which was go global online and open our reputation up across the world.

"It's allowed us to connect with people in different places and get the leading experts, and yet people still want to come back to Blackfriars, it's the best of both worlds."

Historian and author, Dr Paranque, will be appearing alongside Dr Ramirez and Call the Midwife's Stephen McGann to explore the hidden history of women.

Other historians taking part include leading medieval expert and broadcaster, Dan Jones, speaking about the Battle of Agincourt, and author Sathnam Sanghera will be joining Kavita Puri to trace the legacies of the British Empire across the globe.

Philippa Langley, who famously discovered Richard III's body under a Leicester car park, will discuss her ground-breaking new evidence revealing that the Princes in the Tower may well have survived.

"These things still matter, they're still relevant and we should be talking about them," said Dr Ramirez.

"And where better to do it than in Gloucester; you've got everything from Romans right the way up to the present day under your feet.

"Why not take that as an inspiration to think differently and look backwards, to see how we can change things moving forward."

The festival runs until 14 April.

Follow BBC Gloucestershire on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to us on email or via WhatsApp on 0800 313 4630.