Beatrice and Benedick

Marina Fiorato is the author of five novels: The Glassblower of Murano, The Madonna of the Almonds, The Botticelli Secret, Daughter of Siena and The Venetian Contract, and was shortlisted for the Romantic Novelists' Association Historical Fiction Award for Daughter of Siena. Born in Manchester and raised in the Yorkshire Dales, Marina is half Venetian. She is a history graduate of Oxford University and the University of Venice, where she specialized in the study of Shakespeare's plays as an historical source. After university she studied art and since worked as an illustrator, actress and film reviewer. Marina was married on the Grand Canal and lives in north London with her husband, son and daughter. You can follow Marina on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/marinafiorato and find out more about her and her writing at http://www.marinafiorato.com.