The home of my heroine, Lady Apollonia, is the village of Aust in the west country of England near the estuary of the River Severn. Aust provides the setting for the first book in the series, Effigy of the Cloven Hoof, as well as the seventh, Usurper’s Curse.
Aust is the Latin prefix meaning south. From Roman times until the 20th century, a ferry crossed from Aust to Wales. Aust ferry was the southernmost point that Roman Legions crossed the Severn on their way to encampments such as Carleon in Wales. Aust ferry operated in Lady Apollonia’s time and plays an important role in her stories.
The village church is the most important medieval building surviving in Aust. John Wycliffe, famous Oxford scholar of the fourteenth century, was Prebend of the Aust Church in those years when Apollonia and her second husband, Edward, would have been raising their five sons. I have worked this historical character into the plot of the first book.
A sign welcoming visitors to Aust:
Tags: Chaucer's England, historical fiction, medieval mysteries