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 […]
Finding my matriarch, Cecily Neville
Annie Garthwaite describes the 40-year journey that ends on 29 July, 2021, with the publication of her debut novel, Cecily. And reflects on how writing helped her find a matriarch of her own. Mum taught me to read long before school. It was her gift – the key to stories. By the age of ten […]
When the Wars of the Roses got personal
What happens when you discover that an ancestor of yours was involved in the great moments of history which you’re writing about? It makes these events feel closer to you, but also it makes you think again about loyalties, as Nicola Cornick, the bestselling and award-winning historical novelist, tells Historia. In 2019 when I started […]
Henry VII and the Tudor Pretenders by Nathen Amin
On 22 August, 1485, Henry Tudor emerged from the Battle of Bosworth victorious. His disparate army vanquished the forces of Richard III and, according to Shakespeare over a century later, brought ‘smooth-faced peace, with smiling aplenty and fair prosperous days’ back to England. Yet all was not well early in the Tudor reign. Despite later […]
The Queen’s Rival by Anne O’Brien
England, 1459. The Wars of the Roses storm through the country, and Cecily Neville, Duchess of York, plots to topple the weak-minded King Henry VI from the throne. But when the Yorkists are defeated at the battle of Ludford Bridge, Cecily’s family flee and abandon her to face a marauding Lancastrian army on her own. […]
The Queen’s Rival by Anne O’Brien
England, 1459: Cecily Neville, Duchess of York, is embroiled in a plot to topple the weak-minded King Henry VI from the throne. But when the Yorkists are defeated at the Battle of Ludford Bridge, Cecily’s family flee and abandon her to face a marauding Lancastrian army on her own. Cecily can only watch as her […]
Historia Interviews: Conn Iggulden
The fourth and final novel in Conn Iggulden’s epic Wars of the Roses series was published in May. Toby Clements chats to Conn about Ravenspur: Rise of the Tudors, and asks, Richard III: did he or didn’t he? After Ancient Rome and 12th century Mongolia, why medieval England? What makes one era catmint to some while another […]