Dr Helen Castor on THE TRUE JOAN OF ARC

What was it about Joan of Arc’s story that drew you into writing about her?

I started thinking about Joan as a direct result of talking about my previous book, She-Wolves. ‘One of the biggest problems female rulers faced,’ I kept saying, ‘was that medieval women couldn’t lead armies on the battlefield – apart from Joan of Arc, and we all know what happened to her.’ Eventually I realised I didn’t know what happened to her. Or at least, I knew the outline of her story, as we all do – but I didn’t know exactly how and why she came to do the extraordinary things she did. Once I started investigating, I was fascinated.

What would you say are the biggest misconceptions about her life?

That she was ‘saintly’ in the sense of wanting peace and reconciliation. She didn’t: she wanted victory and her enemies’ submission. That the cause for which she fought was straightforwardly