Cecily by Annie Garthwaite

 

Cecily by Annie Garthwaite.

Published 29th July 2021 by Viking.

From the cover of the book:

'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.

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This is the story of Cecily Neville, Duchess of York, the mother of two Plantagenet kings - Edward IV and the much maligned Richard III. Written off as a bit part player in the recorded history that so loves to glorify the acts of men, Annie Garthwaite gives us a fresh perspective on this turbulent period at the beginning of the Wars of the Roses by bringing Cecily alive in these pages.

As the youngest of 22 children and a direct descendant of Edward III through her maternal grandfather John of Gaunt, Cecily was well versed in politics of power from a very young age. Her marriage to her father's ward Richard Plantagenet, heir to the dukedom of York although his father had been executed for treason, was a political gamble in itself - one that paid off when they became Duke and Duchess of York, forging a happy marriage based on true love and mutual respect, and making them central players in the games of power behind the throne.

Garthwaite begins this novel with a stark reminder about how the fortunes of women are decided by men by introducing us to the young Cecily and her husband at the burning of Joan of Arc, both of them there to show they are staunch supporters of the crown, whatever their pedigree. She then goes on to tell the story of Cecily through her eighty years at the heart of power as she navigates her family through the triumphs and tragedies associated with the the wheel of power.

You may think that the story of the Wars of the Roses does not need to be revisited, but you would be wrong, for this is less about the deeds of men and much more about how women play the games of power. Cecily is smart and ambitious, and adept at seeing the big picture. She is not afraid to persuade her husband into treason, use her daughters as pawns in marriages arranged to gain political advantage, and sway hearts and minds by the sheer force of her will alone to achieve her goals - but she is not the only one. Garthwaite uses Cecily's story to give us a glimpse into the lives of other formidable women too - especially Cecily's fierce foe Marguerite of Anjou, the Queen, who is loath to let anyone stand in the way of her ambitions for her own family and favourites. Theirs is the long game of subtle persuasion, moves behind the scenes, and the power of a softly spoken word in the right ear, that both contrasts with and complements so deliciously the bloody violence of the battlefield. 

It is the women that make this novel such a delight, not just by showing how capable they truly are, managing their intricate household affairs and purses, and packing softly-softly political heft, but in the way Garthwaite writes them as realistically flawed characters. We follow Cecily and her female counterparts through the highs and lows of their personal lives too - their desperation for an heir and cement both their own and their houses' futures; their loves and losses; their doubts and vulnerabilities; their cunning, ruthlessness and pride; even their hate and jealousy. These are complex characters, made up of light and shade, and they are glorious, especially the incredible Cecily, who bore twelve children for her beloved husband and buried all but two in her lifetime.

It would be enough to know that the beautifully drawn characters are sufficient to make this story thoroughly compelling, but that is not all folks, because Garthwaite's writing is so engaging that her words pull you right into the action with a wonderful immediacy and feeling of time and place. Even though the events laid out here are bound by historical record, I still found myself pacing alongside Cecily with bated breath as she pled her cause to a hostile audience, or waited for news about the fate of her husband and sons, desperate for their plans to be hailed a success. This is a rare thing indeed, made all the more impressive by the fact that this is a debut novel.

I wanted this story to go on for ever, and was more than a little bereft to reach the end of Cecily's tale. I have been completely bowled over by this fierce and feminist book, and cannot wait to see who Annie Garthwaite chooses to write about next. It's an absolute corker!

Cecily is available to buy now in hardcover, ebook and audio formats from your favourite book retailer.

Thank you to Georgia Taylor at Viking for sending me a proof of this book in return for an honest review and for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.

About the author:

Annie Garthwaite grew up in a working-class community in the north-east of England. She studied English at the University of Wales before embarking on a thirty-year international business career. In 2017 she returned to her first love, books, and set out to write the story of a woman she had always felt drawn to: Cecily Neville. This became her debut novel, Cecily.