Beatrice Cenci is elusive. Even ‘her’ portrait isn’t a painting of her. Executed for murdering her abusive father, was she an innocent victim or a cunning killer? Both, says Elizabeth Fremantle, whose novel, Sinners, is a powerful reinterpretation of her story. But above all, she says, Beatrice was human. Elizabeth won the 2024 HWA Gold […]
Sinners by Elizabeth Fremantle
In 16th-century Rome, Beatrice Cenci – youngest daughter of a powerful nobleman – is destined for a life of gilded insignificance. Wealth talks within the city’s grand palazzos, and women must remain silent. Then her brother is found murdered by a rival family, and Beatrice’s domineering, tyrannical father insists they flee to La Rocca. But […]