Castle setting for launch of Annie's debut
A Shropshire author is holding a launch event at Ludlow Castle for her debut novel which was inspired by tumultuous events there, and which has already been hailed as a "top pick" for readers by a national newspaper.
Annie Garthwaite's book "Cecily" is published by Penguin on July 29.
"I’m a local first-time author and my heroine is a local girl, Cecily Neville, matriarch of the House of York during the Wars of the Roses and mother to Edward IV and Richard III," said Annie, who lives near Bridgnorth.
"For many years Ludlow was her home and the place where, on one fateful day in 1459, she faced down a royal army alone.
"On Tuesday, July 27, I will hold a launch event for 'Cecily' in Ludlow Castle, where, for a time, she and her husband Richard Duke of York ruled supreme.
"'Cecily' was named a Sunday Times ‘top pick’ for July, so a promising start, I think."
Annie's book has been billed as "an exhilarating slice of feminist history" about a figure who "written off over the centuries, her life is one of the greatest untold stories in British history and has never been brought to life like this before."
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 30-year international business career. In 2017 she returned to her first love, books, and set out to write the story of the woman she had always felt drawn to – Cecily Neville.
The book is hardback, £14.99, and also available as an ebook and audiobook.
