‘A LOVE letter to Frome’ is how local writer and artist Annette Burkitt describes her book, Flesh and Bones of Frome Selwood and Wessex, published this month.
She has researched, written and illustrated the early history of the now famous market town and its landscape using a combination of sources including archaeology, history, folklore and place-names. She weaves a story of tenth century Saxon Wessex together with information about the former British Kingdom, Dumnonia, which included the later county of Somerset.
In the year 934 King Athelstan held court in Frome. The royal palace and monastery of St John the Baptist is the setting for a fictional story, Flesh, a summary of Athelstan’s life and times. Britons and Saxons, Heaven and Hell, relics and reliquaries, jealousy and intrigue are balanced by the discovery by a court clerk, Nonna, of manuscripts which describe the old celtic kingdom of Dumnonia.
Annette says, “I feel very connected to Frome and its landscape. Through the fictional character of Nonna I have been able to explore an awareness of a very different culture and people who inhabited the landscape of Frome before the Saxons arrived. I hope to have brought alive the time when a new nation of England and a new country of a united Britain were being forged, here, in Frome.
“This builds on the lectures which I gave several years ago at Frome Community College and which proved popular. Information about landscape features like Cley Hill and Cold Kitchen Hill is discussed in Bones, which will assist anyone hoping to learn more about the deep past of our landscape.”
Flesh and Bones of Frome Selwood and Wessex is published by history and archaeology publisher, Hobnob Press, ISBN 978-1-906978-50-1, priced £12.95 and will soon be available to buy or to order at Hunting Raven bookshop, Frome. Annette will be signing copies at the bookshop from 2.00pm-3.30pm on Saturday 23rd December. for more details, visit www.annetteburkittartist.com
