Waterstones Presents: An Evening with Maggie O’Farrell
Wed 10 Jun
Saturday, 14 Mar
14:00
Scroll
Times
2:00pm
Running Time 0 hours
Venue York Explore Library, Explore York Library
Set in Yorkshire, 1643, When We Were Divided is the story of how three people’s lives are transformed by conflict.
Three women’s lives are woven together – and transformed – when the English Civil War comes to the puritanical Yorkshire clothing towns. While tested to their limits, each finds that war brings a chance to break free of the narrow paths laid out for them. Estranged sisters will hold the life of the other in their hands: will they reconcile or destroy each other entirely?
Jane mourns the departure of her last boy, who goes off to fight for the king. She must find a new way to endure, facing family secrets and her own buried grief.
Isabel is spurred into action, finding herself drawn into the local rebel uprising – with unexpected consequences that might mean disaster for her sister Jane.
Kit is left desperate and starving, taking on the identity of a murdered brother. Life in the king’s army brings friendship and new hope, even love at the most perilous moment of all.
As these three lives intertwine, each of them will be altered forever.
WHEN WE WERE DIVIDED was inspired by a long line of books which bring the past alive, from Liz’s childhood reading of Rosemary Sutcliff, right up to contemporary novels which centre women’s lives, such as A Net for Small Fishes by Lucy Jago; Matrix by Lauren Groff and The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell. She has also responded deeply to her local landscape with its woods and moorland. Walking daily up the steep cobbled path where this civil-war skirmish took place, her imagination couldn’t seem to shake off those ghosts.
Liz Flanagan is a novelist from Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire, UK. She’s created work ranging from historical fiction for adults, fast-paced teenage fiction, to fantasy adventures for young children. She’s inspired by the beautiful landscape of her hometown and a lifetime of reading voraciously. Liz has won several awards, including a UKLA Award in 2024, and been nominated for the Carnegie Medal. She is currently working on a new middle-grade series and two standalone stories. In future, she hopes to continue creating immersive, exciting and emotional stories for different ages.
Please Note: This event is at York Explore, Library Square, Museum St, York, YO1 7DS
Part of York Literature Festival
