Set amidst the unrest and political powerplay of fifteenth-century England, Garthwaite’s vivid, breath-taking novel reimagines the life of Cecily, Duchess of York – a mother, wife and shrewd political player in the Wars of the Roses.
'Rebellion?'
The word is a spark. They can start a fire with it, or smother it in their fingertips.
She chooses to start a fire.
You are born high, but marry a traitor's son. You bear him twelve children, carry his cause and bury his past. You play the game, against enemies who wish you ashes. Slowly, you rise.
You are Cecily.
But when the king who governs you proves unfit, what then? Loyalty or treason - death may follow both. The board is set. Time to make your first move.
Told through the eyes of its greatest unknown protagonist, this astonishing debut plunges you into the closed bedchambers and bloody battlefields of the first days of the Wars of the Roses, a war as women fight it.
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
ISBN: 9780241990971
Number of pages: 400
Weight: 285 g
Dimensions: 198 x 130 x 24 mm
A startling heroine - Sarah Moss
In vigorous, direct prose Garthwaite grippingly resurrects a remarkable woman - Sunday Times
Utterly compelling, this brilliant novel shines a light into a dark corner of our history and reclaims the voice and story of a powerful and forgotten woman. A phenomenal read. I loved it - Liz Hyder, author of The Gifts
Has the new Hilary Mantel arrived? - Sunday Telegraph
I look forward to hearing more from Annie Garthwaite and Cecily - Times
Cecily is a vivid and compelling portrait of a formidable figure from the 15th century and a heroine for our times - Big Issue
In Garthwaite's hands, Neville proves as Machiavellian, manipulative and era-defining as any man - Noon
Cecily stalks the corridors of power like a female Thomas Cromwell. A vividly female perspective on the Wars of the Roses - what a feat - Imogen Hermes Gowar
An extraordinary achievement . . . I could touch and breathe Cecily's world as if I was walking in her shadow - Carol McGrath
CECILY is the WOLF HALL for the 2020s... marks the start of a stellar career - Manda Scott
I loved it . . . Annie Garthwaite writes about the past with a kind of restrained, earthy vim, and with the sort of intimacy and immediacy - and empathy - that can only come from graft and craft - Toby Clements
The Wars of the Roses, remembered for the battles and the fairly rapid turn-around of monarchs, and, eventually, the start of the Tutor age. But what about the women? Or rather, what about one woman in particular?... More
Cecily Neville was an English noblewoman, the wife of Richard, Duke of York, and the mother of two kings of England, Edward IV and Richard III.
This story is about how she exercised power and had power was used...
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Feminist retellings of history and myth seem to have flourished in the last few years. It is something I've thoroughly enjoyed, but none quite so much as Cecily.
This retelling feels different somehow. Maybe...
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