Annie Garthwaite: Author of Cecily

Novelist Annie Garthwaite will be in conversation about her hugely successful novel CECILY, told through the eyes of its protagonist, the greatest unknown Cecily Neville, Duchess of York. Annie will talk about the true history behind her debut that plunges you into the closed bedchambers and bloody battlefields of the first days of the Wars of the Roses. There will be much to discuss as Cecily stayed close to the centre of power through 80 years of tumultuous British history: mothering two kings, bearing twelve children, burying all but two, surviving beyond her house’s ruin. For a woman at any time she is remarkable. For a woman during the 15th century, she is extraordinary. Written off over the centuries, her life is the one of the greatest untold stories in British history and has never been bought to life like this before.