The Unmentioned Girl

My books tell the story of a young woman - and that is something I never really intended.

She was not there at first, but as time goes on I begin to realise that she was there all the time, waiting in the wings - watching over the story and her part in it. And yet The Unnatural History Museum begins with the story of a different girl – a young woman who does not realise that she is part of her story. The girl in question – the aforementioned unmentioned girl – is from another place and treads somewhere beyond the fringes of time and through her, the story began (though Polly Nightingale does not know it yet).

So what of the unmentioned girl? She was born many, many years ago and she died (or slept?) before returning nearly three hundred years later. From what we know she was a martyr - along with others (whose story is preserved in the folklore of several major world religions) - but what she is now, no-one – not even Polly Nightingale – can say. Just an ordinary girl who cheated death … a phantom – an angel? Yet it was clearly in our world – our time - that she discovered both her gift and her calling. The great secret. The unbelievable truth which Polly Nightingale has felt brush against her but is yet to receive.

Yet the story will not end with her. That honour will go to Polly herself. Or perhaps to her daughter … or her daughter’s daughter. But that is many words in the future. That revelation, that strange gift and that strange relationship is a long way off. Yet it has happened and it is happening as the unmentioned girl walks outside of time - through my mind - and through the lives of my characters.

Tempus Fugit.

To find out more about Ravenna Friere visit the Characters section of the website.