Cecily: An epic feminist retelling of the War of the Roses

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And then there’s the characterisations. They’re complex, they’re nuanced, the characters are allowed to be grey rather than rigidly good or bad – a common problem in a lot of woman-centric historical fiction set in this era. Cecily herself is massively flawed, snobby, a bit nasty and judgemental. This is “Proud Cis” alright. A powerful memoir from the Saturday Night Live cast member Cecily Strong about grieving the death of her cousin—and embracing the life-affirming lessons he taught her—amid the coronavirus pandemic.

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Books by Cecily Gayford

Cecily isn’t necessarily a likeable character- she’s ruthless brutal, callous and extremely ambitious. It was interesting to see her influence and manipulation on all aspects of her life: including the children, her husband and her household. CECILY tells the story of Cecily Neville, an English noblewoman, who lived from 1415 to 1495, the wife of Richard, Duke of York, and the mother of two kings of England, Edward IV and Richard III. Cecily: Of course I was instantly obsessed with Cecily. I loved how Garthwaite chose to portray her. I loved the role she was afforded - not only in her own story but in the history of the Wars of the Roses and the eventual victory of her son. Garthwaite gave Cecily such autonomy, strength of character, tenacity and willpower it was a pleasure to read this version of her. I would never myself have imagined Cecily as this type of woman, but after reading this, I think it was mainly because no one else has ever given Cecily any sort of character as all. This version was both refreshing and necessary.

Left to right: Annie’s agent Imogen Pelham, Annie, Annie’s partner Caroline Bennett, Annie’s sister in law Susan Bennett This Cecily Neville is ambitious and politically astute; capable and influential. She is a political animal first and foremost. She and her husband, Richard, the third Duke of York are a well-matched pair, equal partners in love, politics and war. Even their pillow talk is dominated by their political plans. They will establish two administrative centers: Ludlow in the west with its vast revenues from their Mortimer estates and Fotherinhay in the east to manage their English holdings. In each place, Cecily tells her husband, they will build a church as “great engines of prayer for the house York.” And Cecily’s duty is to bear children—the coins of her purse—to build the house. Or this, on the way she wants to engage with viewers. “It sounds like I’m a sadist, but I want that feeling of never quite knowing. The danger is that it ends up being a frustrating game. What I want is to find that moment where you’ve said it, although not completely, but you’ve said enough that you are rewarded for looking.” For me, the stand out character of the 15th century has always been Cecily Neville. She experienced power in both directions: wielding it and having it wielded against her. She survived eighty years of tumultuous history, mothered kings, created a dynasty and brought her family through civil war. She met victory and defeat in equal measure and, in face of all, lived on. Last woman standing, you might say.” Her candid truth about COVID. For the better part of eighteen months, we’ve all been acting like COVID interrupted our life. In a lot of ways, it did; but in others, it wasn’t an interruption as much as it was a multiplier. Rather than substituting one lifestyle for another (one day I work from the office and the next I work from home), Cecily showed how COVID compounded the challenges that we were dealing with when COVID hit (in her case, grief and loss). Rather than it being a distraction, it just added unimaginable complication to the baggage we were already dealing with. It made life exponentially more messy — making the hard things harder while suffocating any of the coping mechanisms that were helping us get by. It was the saltiest salt in some already festering wounds. While I don’t mean to patronize her story, I really hope that 200 years from now, anthropologists find a copy of this book to understand what it felt like trying to survive a global pandemic.The book tells the story of Cecily Neville, the woman who married Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York, and bore him twelve children, many of whom sadly died in infancy. In doing so, Annie Garthwaite joins other writers of historical fiction such as Philippa Gregory and Anne O’Brian who have chronicled this period of history.

This was a surprise. But I was immediately thrilled because the blurb made a reference to Joan of Arc, whose biography I was reading in preparation for the Paul Claudel libretto Jeanne au bûcher that I wanted to read, and the opera by Arthur Honneger that I was going to watch. In the past I have done some reading on the Hundred Years War, but very little on the War of the Roses – I always found it very confusing. A first time author has had her debut novel CECILY published after a successful launch on Tuesday at Ludlow Castle. I hope you enjoy getting to know the seven sisters in this series, each of them different and remarkable in their own way. Just like in life, you're bound to identify with a particular sister more than the others, but that's the part of the fun. And some sisters might even surprise you . . .

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Before reading this book, I must admit, I had no clue who Cecily Neville was. As someone who is not particularly interested in England’s royal lines, I was drawn to this book by its focus on an influential female who is severely underrated and left out of books/teaching. England has been fighting France for 100 years. At home, power-hungry men within a corrupt government manipulate a weak king - and name Cecily's husband, York's loyal duke, an enemy. As the king's grasp on sanity weakens, plots to destroy York take root...