PHILIPPA LANGLEY, author who located the remains of Richard III, wants to restore his reputation By Marilyn Swan Philippa at home in Edinburgh with the king she spent seven-and-a-half years tracking down The unearthing of a skeleton in a Leicester car park last year caused a sensation when it was confirmed as being Richard III. But for PHILIPPA LANGLEY, who instigated the remarkable discovery, the fight to salvage the reputation of this much maligned monarch is far from over A KING and a commoner: such an irresistibly fascinating combination under any circumstances. But this is a uniquely beguiling tale, a richly embroidered tapestry of dark intrigue and villainous mystery; murder and myth woven through with golden threads of hope, faith and possible redemption. And made all the more extraordinary by the fact that the monarch in question is the much-maligned Richard III, dead and lost for 500 years, and the modern-day commoner is a mother-of-two from Edinburgh, who rocked the academic world in August 2012 when she discovered the last Plantagenet's resting place - beneath a car park in Leicester. Acting on an apparently psychic presentiment, screenwriter Philippa Langley, 51, instigated a search for Richard's grave. The skeleton was uncovered in the exact spot where she told archaeologists to dig. That spine-chilling moment, captured on camera by a Channel 4 film crew, was 24-carat TV gold when it aired in February of this year. Amid the cautiously pleased archaeologists and detached academics was Philippa: exhilarated, tearful, overcome. "I have seen the programme and there were 60 hours of film to edit down into an hour and a half, so of course they were going to focus on the more dramatic incidents," she shrugs. But you have to understand, it took four years of research and a three-and-a-half-year battle to get that car park excavated. I needed the scientists for their rigour, but I had walked 1,000 miles in Richard's shoes. The archaeologists were carrying out a professional project and found bones; I was seeing the human being, the man at the heart of so many myths and heinous untruths. In Richard III: The King in the Car Park, viewers were riveted by the account of his discovery. Yet in its own way, Philippa's story is every bit as compelling as that of the monarch who was felled at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485. On film, she came across as, if not unhinged, then certainly obsessive after her seven-and-a-half-year quest for a king. Social media networks dismissed her - "batty" being one of the kinder epithets. There were arguments, for example, about her insistence that the bones - still unidentified - were indisputably those of Richard so should be accorded royal reverence, with Richard's Royal Standard flag draped over them as they were carried away from the site. 'I don't give up when I have set myself a goal,' says Philippa, of her quest to find the king Philippa at the dig in the car park in Leceister. The site is believed to be the long lost Medevile Church Of The Grey Friars Philippa was accused, too, of being "in love" with Richard. Is she? "Ask any writer about their connection to their protagonist and they will tell you they feel not love, but empathy," she says. They understand that person's motivations, their emotions. When the archaeology team used the skull to create a reconstruction of Richard's face, the result was remarkably similar to a portrait of the king. Philippa swooned like a teenager meeting a pop star. That doesn't look like the face of a tyrant. He's very handsome," she sighed. Twitter went crazy about her "girl-crush": "Snog him!" said one tweet. Would she kiss the skull? Would she be led away by security? His caricature of a villain was propagated by the Tudors to tarnish his name In person, as we drink tea in her spotless, stylish home in an affluent Edinburgh suburb, Philippa is calm, articulate and entirely credible. Blonde, slim and well-groomed, she is a woman passionate about her ongoing crusade to recover Richard III's remains - a row is rumbling on about whether he should be re-interred in Leicester or York - and restore his reputation. She has just written a compelling book with historian and friend Michael Jones, entitled The King's Grave: The Search for Richard III. It is cleverly constructed: in alternate chapters she tells the story of her quest, while Michael details the life of Richard colourfully. It reads like an up-all-night thriller. Tellingly, they agree to differ in the matter of the princes in the tower, Edward and Richard (sons of Edward IV, who was Richard III's brother and predecessor). Young Edward, 13, would have succeeded his father to the throne but for the intervention of his uncle, who seized power. Both boys subsequently "disappeared." Philippa is adamant that Richard is innocent of their deaths. It's just not in keeping with his character. Richard had a legitimate claim to the throne because [he argued] Edward IV's marriage to the commoner Elizabeth Woodville was invalid, so their children had no rightful claim. Moreover, Richard was a pious man, who thought through the consequences of everything he did. Even in medieval times killing children was deemed abhorrent; he could never have instigated that. This portrait of Richard III by an unknown artist hangs in London's National Portrait Gallery, left, the facial reconstruction of the Richard, which was revealed in February this year Michael Jones sides with those who believe that it was Richard III who dispatched his nephews. When Philippa speaks, her voice is tinged with urgency; she is driven by a pressing need to right wrongs, however ancient. Does she live, breathe and sleep Plantagenet history? She smiles in acknowledgement of how it might seem. I love writing, but I'm good at compartmentalising my life, so it didn't take over. Well, not completely! She has two sons, aged 18 and 16, who attend one of Edinburgh's leading private schools, and although she is separated from their father, he lives nearby and they often stay with him. "The boys have been hugely supportive, but the search went on for so long that now, whenever someone even mentions Richard III, they race out of the door," she says. They're not terribly into history - one is quite scientific, the other business-oriented. They may not share her interest in the House of York, but if they have inherited even a fraction of their mother's tenacious application and appetite for hard graft, they will go far. "I don't give up when I have set myself a goal," adds Philippa. When she claims that she would never have dug up the car park herself, in the dead of night, with a pickaxe, I'm not entirely sure I believe her. It's hard to believe, too, that her devotion to Richard III - she is secretary of the Scottish branch of the Richard III Society - came about by chance, rather than design. Born in East Africa, where her father variously worked as an engineer and a headteacher, Philippa moved back with her family to their native Darlington when she was two. She enjoyed history in her early years at school, but "a really uninspiring teacher" then extinguished her spark of interest. She decided against going to university because she wanted to earn a living straight away, and having followed a Scottish boyfriend to Edinburgh in 1989, she worked in advertising and promotions for The Scotsman newspaper, and later married him. "I was about to make a major career leap and join an advertising agency when I fell seriously ill in 1992 and was unable to work for several years," says Philippa, who prefers not to specify her condition. I have always been a tremendously busy person, so I read voraciously to keep my mind engaged. In a bookshop one day in 1998 I came across Paul Murray Kendall's biography of Richard III and it was mindblowing; my perception of Richard took a 180 degree turn. Richard III's remains were unearthed after 527 years Murray Kendall's revisionist portrayal of Richard, not as a murderous usurper but as a scrupulously fair and moral king, gripped her and she strove to learn more. By then I'd started doing screenwriting - films and TV dramas - and was convinced that Richard's life would make a great movie. I've always been drawn to stories that challenge established truths, and from what I'd researched, the version of the hunchbacked tyrant who murdered the two princes in the tower just did not tally with the enlightened man referred to in private letters and journals of the time as "My Good Lord," who introduced laws that dramatically improved the lot of the common man. After he died at Bosworth, this caricature of a villain with a withered arm was propagated by the Tudors and widely circulated to tarnish his name. History, of course, is always written by the victors. The Tudors, who came to power after Richard's death, had every reason to blacken his name in a bid to undermine any remaining Yorkist claims to the throne. Shakespeare, writing at the time of Elizabeth I, and drawing heavily on Sir Thomas More's writings condemning Richard as a criminal and a tyrant, created a portrait of villainy that remained unchallenged for centuries. "The Richard III Society was set up in 1924, has branches worldwide and is dedicated to researching the life and times of Richard III, because we want to get to the truth," says Philippa. It is the biggest and the oldest historical society in the world. We're not just historical conspiracy theorists, we promote and fund solid research. It was methodical research that led Philippa to Richard's grave. To get a sense of him, she went to the places where he had been in his lifetime, including Bosworth. Then someone from the society suggested she go to Leicester, to the site of Greyfriars friary, where he spent time before his final battle in 1485. Received wisdom had it that his corpse was flung over a horse and paraded through the streets to prove his death, before being buried in the church at Greyfriars. When the friary was destroyed during Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries in 1538, Richard's body was purportedly thrown into the river Soar. "I had been advised to visit the car park built over the site of Greyfriars, where there was still a piece of medieval wall, but I felt unmoved," says Philippa. It was a warm spring day in 2005. As I went to leave I had a strong compulsion to enter a private car park opposite, and when I squeezed past the barrier I felt a strange mix of excitement and fear. My heart was thumping in my chest and I was shivering with cold despite the sunny weather. I knew with utter conviction I was standing on Richard's grave. Am I psychic? You might call it that, but I believe that we all have a sixth sense if we tune into it. Philippa carrying a replica of Richard lll's Royal Standard flag Back in Edinburgh, she continued with her researches. Then, a year later, she returned to Leicester to see whether she had, in fact, merely imagined her sense of epiphany. I walked over to the very same parking bay and I felt the way I had done before, except that something had changed - an R had been painted over it. It was obviously to denote reserved parking, but I knew it was a sign that Richard was ready to be found. Exhaustive fundraising ensued and thousands of pounds were raised through donations from Richard III Society members. Philippa presented a convincing case to the University of Leicester Archaeology Services, who agreed to take on the project. In the summer of 2012 work started, and with uncanny synchronicity, on that first day of the dig on 25 August - the precise anniversary of Richard III's burial - a skeleton was found under the parking bay presciently marked with R. But Philippa's jubilation turned to horror when initial findings were that the skeleton did, indeed, appear to have a hunchback. I almost collapsed. I wept and just kept saying, "No, no, no!" because I knew that if he did have a hunchback it would be taken by the world as evidence that everything that was said about him was true." In fact, it quickly emerged that instead of a dramatic hunched back, medically known as kyphosis, Richard III had scoliosis, a painful but non-life-threatening curvature of the spine. "The impact on him physically and emotionally must have been horrendous, yet he fought in three battles and was very courageous," says Philippa, with such genuine sympathy that it's as though she is talking about a close relative rather than a historical figure. DNA tests, cross-matched with a bona fide descendant, conclusively confirmed the skeleton was indeed that of Richard III. As the row rumbles on between those who want Richard buried in his family seat of York and those who feel he ought to lie in Leicester Cathedral, Philippa is oddly unwilling to state her preference. "I can't, for legal reasons," she murmurs. But even when Richard III is finally laid to rest in a tomb worthy of a king, his - and Philippa's - story is not quite over. Until the bodies of the two princes in the tower are found and their murderer identified, the world will continue to assume they were cruelly slain by their uncle. "I have lots of projects on the go, and maybe at some point the princes might be one of them," she says, speaking in uncharacteristically vague terms. But I have a feeling that, if anyone can locate those long-lost boys, it will be the commoner who unearthed a king. An extract from The King's Grave: The Search for Richard lll August 2012 and Philippa is overseeing the dig at the car park in Leicester. As the Channel 4 team starts to film, the programme's presenter, Horrible Histories actor Simon Farnaby, addresses the camera while Jo Appleby, lecturer in bioarchaeology at the University of Leicester, excavates the main trench... At the trench, the cameras roll as Jo Appleby bends down and removes a light covering of earth from the chest cavity and upper vertebrae. The spine has the most excruciating "S" shape. Whoever this was, she states, the spinal column has a really abnormal curvature. This skeleton has a hunchback. The word hits me like a sucker punch. No, I can't take it in. Are they saying this is Richard? I look again at the acute "S" shape of the spine. If this is Richard, how can he have worn armour with a hump in his back? Appleby confirms that the arms are normal, there was no "withered arm." Farnaby says he could have been a hunchback but still been the nice guy. But how could he fight with his head tilted downward? How could he see? The faces of Dr Tobias Capwell, Dominic Sewell and the other combat and weaponry experts I'd spoken to whirl before me. Personal descriptions of Richard come to mind; written by people who met him, none mentioned any acute abnormality. There's more. Appleby explains there is a wound at the top of the skull and damage to the base inflicted at or around the time of death. She lifts the skull that she has released from the earth and turns it round. There's an indent on the inside with two small flaps of bone hanging from it. Directly above this, on the outside top of the skull, there is a small square puncture wound like that inflicted by a poleaxe. Appleby turns the skull over. At the back is a massive cleave wound, suggesting a blow that would have taken off most of the back of the head. This is a man who could have died in battle. I'm reeling. Replacing the skull, she demonstrates how the remains looked when she uncovered them. I can see how high the skull is in the earth. The neck has been forced up so that the head is sticking out, jerking forward and downward on to the chest. I'm trying to discern the man from the bones, but can see nothing. Appleby lifts the skull again showing the massive cleave wound and the face. Suddenly there is hair, blood and humanity. I flop down on to the spoil heap behind me. Farnaby puts his arm around me and asks if I'm all right. I feel as if I've been hit by a train. The others want me to be excited because it looks as though we may have found Richard, but all I can hear is the pounding in my ears and the awful word "hunchback." Appleby is talking about the Paralympics and the men and women who overcome disabilities to become superhuman heroes. This was Richard, who became a warrior king in spite of everything. She's trying to help me comprehend what I'm seeing. But that's not why I'm in turmoil. The hunchback stigma, if confirmed, will allow modern historians with their reputations tied to Tudor propaganda to claim that their chosen sources have been validated. Any hope of revealing the man behind the myths will be lost and the cardboard cutout caricature held up as incontestable. This is an edited extract from The King's Grave: The Search for Richard III by Philippa Langley and Michael Jones, which will be published by John Murray on 3 October, price £20.To order a copy for £15.99 with free p&p, contact the you bookshop on 0844 472 4157, or click here to go to our online bookshop. Wattie Cheung/Camera Press, Rex/University of Leicester, Peter Corns/Express Pictures, Rick Findler/Barcroft Media