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

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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. This cookie is set by the provider mookie1.com. This cookie is used for serving the user with relevant content and advertisement. She also gets very real about her relationships with her family and with significant others. She doesn't stay on the surface, she tells it like it was, like it is, and I admire her so much for putting that out there. The way she had relationships that weren't the best, but they had moments in them that mattered and they will stay with her, even though she couldn't stay with them.

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. The main plot points are dramatic and true, but it’s told from Cecily’s point of view. She’s an intelligent, bold, ambitious, and politically-savvy woman, playing the long game to secure her family’s wealth and power. She’s a shrewd judge of character and circumstance: she knows what to do to manipulate any particular person, supplies timely information (sometimes deliberately false: “ It’s true if men believe it.”) to sway minds, and forges transactional (strategic) marriages for her children. Being in nature made me feel alive, made my senses sharpen and soar, as if I was rising above the earth and becoming part of the universe. Here at Kinnaird, I knew that the inner part of me that I hid from the world could blossom and grow…' The image the author presents of the relationship between Richard and Cecily is one of trust, and of real and enduring love. More importantly, it’s a marriage of minds. As Cecily observes: ‘They’re natural allies. Watchers and listeners both. Thinkers, planners, weighers of words.’ And, my goodness, do they need to be because as the years roll on there is power play after power play with rival factions, and families, seeking the ear of a King who proves to be easily swayed.

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Cecily Strong had a special bond with her cousin Owen. And so she was devastated when, in early 2020, he passed away at age thirty from the brain cancer glioblastoma. Before Strong could attempt to process her grief, another tragedy the coronavirus pandemic. Following a few harrowing weeks in the virus epicenter of New York City, Strong relocated to an isolated house in the woods upstate. Here, trying to make sense of Owen’s death and the upended world, she spent much of the ensuing months writing. The result is This Will All Be Over Soon —a raw, unflinching memoir about loss, love, laughter, and hope. 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 . . . Garthwaite has this incredible skill for being able to draw these incredibly detailed, memorable character sketches with only a few words or lines. I found myself constantly amazed by the sheer scope of the novel, the epic cast and how much Garthwaite was able to make me feel for them especially when some only appear sporadically. Although I might wish that my (relatively) obscure favourite of the 15th century appeared a little more in Garthwaite’s novel, I also have to say Garthwaite has written by far the best depiction of Eleanor Cobham’s penance walk I’ve ever read. Solid research underlies the story, and the prominent role the couple played in the history of this period is deftly conveyed. Talk predominates in the first part of the book, but as York mounts direct challenges to Marguerite and the king’s favorites the action increases and the story is told with some wonderful scenes. Cecily’s role in these events seems overplayed (see above, regarding the flight from Ludlow), but perhaps not by much. Marguerite is often portrayed the House of Lancaster’s warrior queen; why couldn’t Cecily have played a similar role for the House of York?

The will of God… that any man - or woman indeed - may, according to their courage, shape His will to their purpose.”The format of this book alternates between a diary during 2020 and 2021, and Cecily sharing memories of Owen and of her own life. It often gave stream of consciousness vibes which doesn’t always work for me as a reader, but I think worked well here given the time and circumstances and that this is nonfiction, rather than fiction, which is where I usually struggle with this style. I have no confirmation, but expect this was cathartic for Cecily to write. Or this, on the freedom she found after crossing the Atlantic. “The big change for me was that in America, people seemed a lot more relaxed about what you could and couldn’t do. Yes. As an artist. In America they’d already moved on. People had figured out that you could still paint. The conversation just felt totally different when I first came here.”

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. 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.” Velvet on velvet… It seems the scents of an Italian summer are trapped in its folds, or that, by some magic, the tiny marguerites patterned in its alternating depths carry the perfume of true flowers.” Shines a light into a dark corner of our history and reclaims the voice and story of a powerful and forgotten woman' LIZ HYDER, author of The GiftsJudging by the actual technical skill of the writing, it’s awesome. The prose is gorgeous. It does something sound more “modern” than I’d expect a historical novel to but those moments are relatively few. Garthwaite’s writing is evocative and illuminative. But it’s also matched by a tight, tense plot that verges into a political thriller. It’s a compelling, taut read. I took it more slowly than I could have because I wanted to savour the book but I could’ve read this book within a day or two. There are genuinely harrowing, emotional moments – I was moved to tears, I had a pit in my stomach. I took photos of some passages so I could keep rereading them. There were so many beautiful passages about grief in this book. On April 17th, 2020, the author wrote, "Do you also cry yourself to sleep? So often, I keep approaching okay, but I'm never fully there. I'll only ever be okay-adjacent. I'm everything-adjacent because words are hard to find these days. I'm living life-adjacent right now."