She then went to journalism college in Cardiff and spent a year as an apprentice with the Portsmouth News before she managed to gain a place on an English literature degree course at the University of Sussex, where she switched to a history course.

[6] She worked for BBC radio for two years before attending University of Edinburgh, where she obtained a Ph.D. degree in 18th-century literature in 1985 for her thesis entitled The popular fiction of eighteenth-century commercial circulating libraries.

Reading a number of novels set in the 17th century led her to write the best-selling Lacey trilogy Wideacre, which is a story about the love of land and incest, The Favoured Child and Meridon.

The most successful of her novels has been The Other Boleyn Girl, published in 2001 and adapted for BBC television in 2003 with Natascha McElhone, Jodhi May and Jared Harris.

[10] In 2013, Helen Brown of The Telegraph wrote that "Gregory has made an impressive career out of breathing passionate, independent life into the historical noblewomen whose personalities had previously lain flat on family trees, remembered only as diplomatic currency and brood mares.

"[11] She added, "Gregory’s historical fiction has always been entertainingly speculative (those tempted to sneer should note that she’s never claimed otherwise) and comes with lashings of romantic licence.

[12] Gregory was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2021 Birthday Honours for services to literature and to charity in the UK and the Gambia.

[19][20] The novel depicts Anne as cold and ruthless, as well as strongly implying that the accusations that she committed adultery and incest with her brother were true, despite it being widely accepted that she was innocent of the charges.

In addition to wells, the charity has piloted a successful bee-keeping scheme, funded feeding programmes and educational workshops in batik and pottery and is working with larger donors to install mechanical boreholes in some remote areas of the country where the water table is not accessible by digging alone.

Gregory wrote her first novel Wideacre while completing her doctorate[15] and lived during that time in a cottage on the Pennine Way with her first husband Peter Chislett, editor of the Hartlepool Mail, and their baby daughter.