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.

Reviews

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*