Lucy Worsley

Lots of historians are sniffy about re-enactors. I remember meeting someone very grand while I was making the programme who said: "Oh, I see you are going over to the dark side." I have suffered from that thinking, too, that the documents we should be using are from archives and libraries. But you can learn a lot by recreating stuff.

My main job as a curator is to try to get people interested in history, to visit our palaces, to enjoy themselves, and to learn something, too. I try to do the same with my books, to entertain as well as to inform.