Isabella of Angoulême

Erica Lainé was born in Southampton in 1943 and originally studied for the theatre at the Arts Educational School in Tring. She worked as a library assistant in London and trained as a speech and drama teacher before moving with her family to Hong Kong in 1977. Here she worked for the British Council for twenty years as a teacher and educational project manager. Since 1997 she has lived in south-west France where she became interested in all sorts of historical research and writing, as President of the Aquitaine Historical Society. This led to a focus on Isabella of Angoulê me and her life and times. The Aquitaine region is rich in English and French history and Isabella is a person who was woven into both. Erica has begun writing part two of 'The Tangled Queen' which will show how Isabella played all sides against each other and how her intrigues became part of the beginning of the Hundred Years' War.