Mothers in War: An Evening with Annie Garthwaite

Thursday 14th August 2025,

Doors open 6.15pm, Talk 7 – 8pm, book signing

St Torney’s Church, North Hill, nr Launceston, PL15 7PQ

Mothers in War: An Evening with Annie Garthwaite

Tickets £10, (in advance & on the door), to include a glass of wine.

For St Torney’s first literary event we are delighted to welcome Annie Garthwaite, acclaimed author of two novels –The King’s Mother and Cecily – that bring the women of the Wars of the Roses to life. 

North Hill’s church is steeped in history and has its own Wars of the Roses story…

We are grateful to Shrew Books of Fowey, who are supporting the event and will have Annie’s Books on sale at the venue. Annie will be signing books following her talk.

Annie Garthwaite will be in conversation with Sarah Latham Phillips MA, Freelance Lecturer and teacher in Art History & English Literature.

Accounts of the Wars of the Roses are dominated by men – kings and kingmakers, traitors and tyrants. But the wars were equally shaped by women, driving the action and risking their lives to secure the throne for their sons. From Cecily Neville, dominant matriarch of the House of York, to Margaret Beaufort, mother of the Tudor dynasty, Annie traces the risks these women took and the prices they paid. 

Answering questions and reading from The King’s Mother, Annie will describe all that these women did and were driven to do to win the crown for their sons and become King’s Mother themselves. “This,” she says, “is a story of mothers and sons; of maternal ferocity and female ambition – and of all the terror that families can inflict upon themselves.”
 

And, by focusing on what these women wanted, suffered, knew and did, The King’s Mother gives us a fresh take on some of English history’s most enduring mysteries: Was Edward IV’s marriage bigamous and his children bastards? Why were the children of great families married at such a young age and used as political pawns? Why did Edward order the execution of his brother George, Duke of Clarence, years after forgiving his treason? And in the year of the tenth anniversary of the reinternment of Richard III, did he really murder his brother’s children, the Princes in the Tower? The women were there – and they know the truth.

St Torneys, North Hill, is recognised as a building of great historical interest. As a result, it has been saved and restored by the Church Conservation Trust, re-opening in October 2024.  St Torney’s has its own links to the Plantagenets. The Courtenay family, the Earls of Exeter, held the local manor of Landreyne in North Hill, just over the border from Devon. William Courtenay was to marry Katherine Plantagenet, (1495), the second youngest daughter of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville, sister to the Princes in the Tower and to Elizabeth of York, who became Henry VII’s queen.  

Cecily (Viking, Penguin 2021) was named a 'top pick' by The Times and Sunday Times, a 'Best Book of 2021' by independent bookshops and Waterstones, and has recently been optioned for television. The King's Mother (Viking, Penguin 2024) was named ‘Book of the Month’ by The Times immediately upon publication. 

Annie’s tour for the Kings Mother has been extensive, speaking at Southwark Cathedral, Leicester Cathedral, Raby Castle, Alnwick Castle, Richard III centre in Leicester, Bosworth Heritage Centre, Fotheringhay Church, Gloucester History Festival, numerous literature festivals and many independent book shops across the UK and on Radio 4 Woman’s hour. This is the first time she has crossed the Tamar.