Swabey, Ffiona (Ffiona von Westhoven Perigrinor)

PERSONAL:

Education: Graduated from Trinity College, Dublin; Royal Holloway, University of London, M.A; C.G. Jung Institute, diploma.

CAREER:

Educator, freelance writer, and psychotherapist.

WRITINGS:

Medieval Gentlewoman: Life in a Gentry Household in the Later Middle Ages, Routledge (New York, NY), 1999.

Eleanor of Aquitaine, Courtly Love, and the Troubadours, Greenwood Press (Westport, CT), 2004.

SIDELIGHTS:

Ffiona Swabey is the pen name of Ffiona von Westhoven Perigrinor. She is also an educator, freelance writer, and psychotherapist. Swabey initially graduated with a degree in modern history from Trinity College, Dublin, before earning a master of arts degree in women's history at Royal Holloway, University of London. Swabey later earned a diploma from the C.G. Jung Institute.

Swabey published her first book, Medieval Gentlewoman: Life in a Gentry Household in the Later Middle Ages, in 1999 with Routledge. Swabey discusses the early-fifteenth-century Suffolk heiress Alice de Bryene's life and uses it as a backdrop to put the history of the period into perspective.

Cynthia J. Neville, reviewing the book in the Canadian Journal of History, cautioned that "readers looking for wholly new insights into the day-to-day existence of women from the ranks of the medieval English gentry will perhaps be disappointed with this work." Neville conceded, however, that "students of the medieval gentry will enjoy thoroughly the broad range of topics that the book explores." Neville concluded that "the book is lavishly produced. It includes several dozen helpful photographs as well as plates and tables that set out Alice's family tree in abbreviated fashion." Karri S. Roper, writing in the Journal of Women's History, remarked that the author "creates a stunning book … [painting] a vivid portrait of the lifestyle and experiences" of Alice de Bryene. Writing in the NWSA Journal, Julia Dietrich suggested that the book "seems to invite an audience wider than the scholarly one, in spite of its documentation," noting that certain sections of the book offer "capsule summaries which should be very helpful to the general reader and to scholars in other fields who might not think about the fourteenth century on a daily basis." Dietrich observed that "Swabey sometimes chooses to illustrate manorial life by narrating an imagined meal or journey, and she does so with great appeal. I found myself wishing that the book would offer more such narratives for the sheer pleasure of reading them." Dietrich remarked, however, that "the abrupt changes of gear from imaginative narrative to argument to description throughout the book are a bit unsettling, as is the uneasy relationship among them."

In 2004 Swabey published her second book, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Courtly Love, and the Troubadours. The book covers the life of twelfth-century Eleanor of Aquitaine, queen consort of both France and England and one of the most powerful women in medieval Europe. The book discusses the changing ideologies of the known world through the singing bards as more contact was made with new territories and immigrants from afar moved into Europe for trade or conquest. Bonnie Wheeler, writing in the Historian, commented that the book is both "adroitly written and edited." Although noting that it is "brief," Wheeler lauded it as "very appealingly designed for classroom and introductory purposes," and additionally pointed out that "there is a relevant and nicely produced series of images." Wheeler concluded that "the book fulfills its mission of providing timely interpretations of major figures and issues for an introductory audience."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Canadian Journal of History, April 1, 2001, Cynthia J. Neville, review of Medieval Gentlewoman: Life in a Gentry Household in the Later Middle Ages, p. 114.

Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, June 1, 2000, L.E. Mitchell, review of Medieval Gentlewoman, p. 1884.

Historian, June 22, 2006, Bonnie Wheeler, review of Eleanor of Aquitaine, Courtly Love, and the Troubadours, p. 403.

History Today, April 1, 1999, review of Medieval Gentlewoman, p. 52.

Journal of Women's History, June 22, 2001, Karri S. Roper, review of Medieval Gentlewoman, p. 219.

NWSA Journal, June 22, 2001, Julia Dietrich, review of Medieval Gentlewoman, p. 190.

Reference & Research Book News, May 1, 2000, review of Medieval Gentlewoman, p. 91; February 1, 2005, review of Eleanor of Aquitaine, Courtly Love, and the Troubadours, p. 36.