Hello and welcome back to another new episode on the Historic Royal Palaces podcast.

I'm Claudia and I'm the producer on this podcast.

Today we're trying something new as it's March, the month of International Women's Day,

and what better way to celebrate than with two special episodes featuring our chief curators of historic royal palaces?

So I'm here at Hampton Court with Tracy Borman, our chief curator, and I'm going to be asking her 21 questions.

So Tracy, how did you start your day today?

Stretching. This is a new thing for me. I spend a lot

my day hunched over a computer writing, so I've started doing stretches. First thing in the morning,

it's amazing. I love that. And what do you have planned for the rest of your day? Right now,

I'm going to go and see our newly installed Berlin Ring, very exciting in the Great Hall,

then much more boringly answering emails, and at the end of the day I'll be taking Cromwell for a walk,

my dog. And if you had to choose one palace out of the six managed by historic royal palaces,

which would it be? So hard but the Tower of London.

And why is that? It's just got everything, a thousand years of history and it's got a particularly

strong, gruesome Tudor history. And Tudor history is your thing. Absolutely. That's not a question.

What's one thing you always have on your desk, Tracy?

Cake.

If you could have dinner with any one woman from history, who would it be?

Elizabeth the first. Why? She is my all-time historical heroine. I admire her hugely. I have so many questions to ask her so I would love to have a

couple of hours alone with Elizabeth and what do you love most about your job going

through the doors that say private on them what is your favourite historic site in the UK

so excluding the six historic royal palaces, I am going to go for Lincoln Cathedral.

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