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Hello and welcome to Life of the Week from History Extra, where leading historians delve into the lives

of history's most intriguing and significant figures.

No one epitomised the wild spirit of the restoration era, quite like Nell Gwynn.

An orange cellar turned actress, turned royal mistress.

She hustled her way to the very top with charm,

wisecracks and withering put downs. For today's Life of the Week episode, Ellie Cawthorne spoke to

Sophie Shawland about Gwyn's Rags to Rich's story. It's lovely to have you on the podcast, Sophie, because we're going to be delving into the life

of one of the most remarkable characters of the Restoration era.

Can you give us a 60-second intro to Nell Gwynn?

What can we expect in this episode?

So Nell Gwynn is sometimes known as the 17th century Cinderella, because she was a bit of a kind of rags to riches tail.

So she grew up incredibly poor, a really, really difficult life.

She was possibly a child prostitute and then became one of the first ever actresses on the English stage, became incredibly successful, and then

eventually caught the eye of King Charles II, became one of his principal mistresses, sometimes

known as his countryside mistress, even though she was actually quite, you know, London,

Bick-Cockney, and had a love affair with him that lasted

...