Cecelia Holland

Cecelia Holland has built a wide-ranging career in historical fiction, moving across medieval Europe, the ancient world, and North American history. She began publishing with The Firedrake in 1966 and has since produced a large body of independent historical novels. Houghton Mifflin released The Lords of Vaumartin in 1988; it follows the young Breton heir Everard through fourteenth-century France, where scholarship, dynastic conflict, and civic politics complicate conventional ideas of chivalry. Berkley issued The Secret Eleanor in 2010, turning to Eleanor of Aquitaine and her sister Petronilla during the period surrounding Eleanor's separation from Louis VII and meeting with Henry Plantagenet. Across the two books, Holland approaches prominent events through characters whose personal obligations reveal how power works at close range. Her research supports settings that feel materially specific, yet her narratives remain driven by difficult choices rather than historical display. Holland has also taught creative writing in northern California, connecting a long publishing career with instruction in the craft of fiction.