Glennis Virgo
Glennis Virgo’s novel, City of Silk, was the winner of the inaugural Jenny Brown Associates Debut Writers Over 50 Award in 2023, and is set for publication with Allison and Busby in November 2024.
City of Silk is a glorious world-building novel set against the rich fabric of 16th century Bologna where young seamstress Elena Morandi fights for justice for her wronged friend and battles to find a way to become a tailor in a male-dominated society.
Glennis Virgo spent many years grabbing opportunities to write while following a career in education. A high spot was winning a travel article competition launched by Italia! magazine and the prize of a short break in Venice was a thrill. But it was Bologna and its long history of dissidence which became an obsession. Once retired from her post as a primary school headteacher, Glennis was able to pursue her dream of writing an historical novel set in her beloved Bologna. Glennis lives in Essex and is working on her second novel.
Glennis is represented at Jenny Brown Associates by Jenny Brown and Lisa Highton. For all enquiries contact jenny@jennybrownassociates.com or lisa@jennybrownssociates.com
Books by Glennis
City of Silk
Allison and Busby, November 2024
Justice in sixteenth-century Bologna is like the fine silk which the city produces: something only the rich and powerful can afford.
Elena Morandi, marked by her time in the Baraccano orphanage and grieving the friend who was driven to suicide, has been placed with a seamstress. However, she longs to be a tailor, a profession barred to her as a woman. With luck and perseverance, Elena gains a fragile foothold in the workshop of master tailor Francesco Rondinelli, but when she crosses paths once more with Antonio della Fontana, who owns every corner of the city and abused his position of power at the Baraccano, her tenuous place is lost. Driven to fight for justice against Fontana as a man whose influence places him above the law, Elena hatches a plan to get retribution for herself, her friend and those still prey to Fontana’s abuses.