Fiona Flint
Author Bio
Fiona’s fascination with history started out as a hobby, volunteering on digs over the summer, taking a few evening classes .. then everything got horribly out of control! Before she began writing, Fiona studied early Anglo-Saxon weapon fittings in museum basements and contributed specialist reports to the publication of a number of Anglo-Saxon cemeteries. She holds an MA in Medieval Studies from the University of York and a Diploma in Medieval History from Birkbeck College, University College London. Her academic research included studies of the early Anglo-Saxon women’s monastic community at Minster-in-Thanet and early Anglo-Saxon shield burials in East Kent. Since then she has worked as a finds specialist for English Heritage, Canterbury Archaeological Trust, Museum of London Archaeology Service, Colchester Archaeological Trust and Channel Tunnel Rail Link. Her voluntary work has included excavation at Roman and post-medieval sites, conservation at Colchester Castle Museum and education outreach at her local museum in Essex. She now lives quietly at home with her husband, teenage son and an overly-dramatic golden retriever, enjoying her garden and the opportunity to write lots and lots of books.
Inspiration
It was a funny thing, how I started writing. I signed up for a dig in East Kent, where my father's family all come from. I booked myself B&B from a list of options provided, at Minster Abbey, expecting a run of the mill guesthouse. Not so! I arrived to the oldest inhabited building in England. There were nuns in habits - it was like walking onto a film set. I returned every summer while volunteering at the Roman villa excavation in the field next door. The nuns grew their own produce, kept goats, and would occasionally fly past on tractors. The home-cooked food was plentiful and delicious. The rose garden was peaceful. The company was wonderful. The sound of the nuns singing wafted in through small leaded windows, ajar, soothing the soul. The annexe I stayed in had rooms with names. They were the names of Anglo-Saxon princesses from the earliest days of the Abbey. The name of my room was Domneva. There was a wonderful foundation myth associated with this princess and her family. And that's where it started. When I got home, I researched. I found out everything I could, but it wasn't enough. I needed to fill in the gaps. I wondered and supposed and had ideas. Much, much later, this research and this story would become the seeds for my first attempt at writing a book. I would be up with my son for a night-time feed and, having settled him, I would find things sparking in my imagination. I wrote them down in an attempt to free myself of them and get back to sleep again. Then, the story grew. I hope it will be the first in a series of novels about Minster and its early abbesses from the lost royal family of East Kent. After many drafts, I put Domneva aside to try another project, so I could come back to her once I had honed my skills. Because now it had become clear that I couldn't stop doing this writing thing. Wouldn't stop doing this writing thing. Its fun. And cathartic. And addictive. Life called me in different directions until, a few years ago, now, I became disabled. Stuck at home with time on my hands, I began tracing my family tree. I wasn't satisfied with just dates and names, I had to know how these people lived. Who they were. One day I fell down a rabbit hole and found myself face to face with my ancestors. There they were, speaking to me directly from the columns of Victorian newspapers. And what characters they were! I felt the compulsion return. I wondered, I supposed and I had ideas. 'The Horse Slaughterer's Daughter' is based on a newspaper article detailing an incident which happened to a real-life Mary. The time and the place are recreated as closely as possible. Many of the characters are based on real people and a lot of the plot really happened. Bringing their world to life has given me so much pleasure. I can't wait to share it with you.
