Marrion Taffe took her first steps on Magnetic Island in North Queensland and spent her later childhood surrounded by history in her family’s Ballarat home, which was open to the public. She studied Arts at ACU and rowed for Australia before embarking on a twenty-year journalism career at newspapers in Queensland, the UK and Victoria, where she was national features editor at mX for eight years. 

She studied Professional Writing and Editing at RMIT and was awarded a Varuna Residential Fellowship in 2023 to work on her debut novel By Her Hand, published by HarperCollins 4th Estate in March.

If you could have dinner with any historical figure, who would it be and why?

I'd like to ask Jesus some serious questions but I'd rather dine with Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians. Most people have heard of Alfred The Great. Æthelflæd was his daughter and she was great in her own right. She was elected to rule the Kingdom of Mercia and she did so with a fascinating mix of diplomacy and decisive military action. She built defences, promoted education and raised her nephew Ælthelstan who became the first king of a united England, partly thanks to Æthelflæd's actions. I'd also like to know know what really happened to Æthelflæd's daughter Ælfwynn. It is the only time in English history that a throne has passed from a woman to another woman. But, after her death, Æthelflæd's brother Edward took over and had Ælfwynn removed from power.