A startling heroine

In vigorous, direct prose Garthwaite grippingly resurrects a remarkable woman

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

Has the new Hilary Mantel arrived?

I look forward to hearing more from Annie Garthwaite and Cecily

Cecily is a vivid and compelling portrait of a formidable figure from the 15th century and a heroine for our times

In Garthwaite's hands, Neville proves as Machiavellian, manipulative and era-defining as any man

Cecily stalks the corridors of power like a female Thomas Cromwell. A vividly female perspective on the Wars of the Roses - what a feat

An extraordinary achievement . . . I could touch and breathe Cecily's world as if I was walking in her shadow

CECILY is the WOLF HALL for the 2020s... marks the start of a stellar career

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

This sort of poetry fills the hole in our culture left by preaching. It's topical... Shire speaks of racism, misogyny and life as a refugee... Her imagery is striking

Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head is full of ferocious love and truth. It is not overstatement to say Shire writes the way Nina Simone sang

Heartbreaking, full-bodied, and luscious. Although they encompass complex themes, the poems are lucid and utterly magically alive, it's almost like the book is a person!

Warsan Shire is an expert sculptor. She molds words into clay, her poems into statues-each one a wonder that I return to, in reverence. Because in every line, every curve is an invitation to see differently what has been deemed ugly or difficult. This book is the art gallery I've yearned to visit

Read these candid and revelatory poems to wrap your arms tight around the certainty of your own fracture, to acknowledge the many places and many ways your body has succumbed to violation and only fitfully healed. Read them to know your whole muscled self as a vessel for grief, and to bask in the stuttered lyric of its story. Beauty is maddeningly elusive, but it does exist. It's here in these lines, bursting brilliant, reshaping the story

Her poems are alchemical; I promise if you read a poem of hers you might levitate, at the very least you will be changed

Shire's electrifying poems have the resonance of instant classics... Shire raises up in dignity the lives of immigrants, mothers and daughters, Black women and teenage girls... This is poetry that has the power to create empathy, a quality which often seems lacking in these turbulent times

A very contemporary mix of deep tenderness and caustic humour

A celebration of Black womanhood, joy, diaspora and beyond.

With many of its poems famous in wider culture, it delivers an emotional intensity no less captivating for being familiar

This collection is a gut-punching series of poems that has haunted me ever since I first read it. I am so excited to see what Warsan Shire does next

[A] stunning debut collection... her words speak to women's experiences worldwide