Revising Anne Boleyn: Why does the story of Anne Boleyn draw so many women writers across the threshold into the realm of imagination?

For decades, the story of Anne Boleyn has inspired the novels of many women writers, including myself. Anne Boleyn's story has been described as 'a void' - the gap acting as the space to engage imagination. Whether she is cast in a negative or positive light, fictional works represent Anne Boleyn as a determined and intelligent woman, a woman who seized her voice in a time when women were expected to be silent. By seizing her voice, she also seized her tragic, yet - as a woman not erased by history - still triumphal destiny. Why does the story of Anne Boleyn continue to ignite the imagination of women writers? How does revising Anne Boleyn's story offer a feminist standpoint relevant to women today? What does the story of Anne Boleyn tell us about our patriarchal world - past and present - and the master narratives in place controlling and destroying the lives of women?