Rob asked Sharon Kay Penman:

How closely did you follow the discovery of Richard III's remains? Did you get a sense of closure from the discovery and the follow-up research it generated?

Sharon Kay Penman Hi, Rob,
When I first heard about the project, I admit I did not expect them to find a royal needle in that Leicester haystack. But once they announced the discovery of a skeleton and described it, I never doubted that they'd found Richard--a man in his thirties who'd died violently and who had a curvature of the spine caused by scoliosis. Who else could it be but Richard? So I did not need the DNA evidence to confirm his identity, but I was very glad that they had it to convince the rest of the world! It is amazing that we now know how tall he was--five feet, eight inches--and what he looked like. And I felt immediate empathy when I learned he'd suffered from scoliosis, for I do, too. My first thought was: Poor Richard, living in an age without chiropractors! Whether people are Ricardians or not, the discovery of his lost grave is a remarkable historical discovery.

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