What if the world was flat?
...if the Russian Revolution had never happened?
...if the American Civil War had been won by the South?
...if there really are fairies at the bottom of your garden?
What if you were a fisherman in the westernmost parts of the British Isles of the 11^th century?

In Irish legend there is an island, variously called Fianchaire, or Finchaighe, or by its anglicised version, Fincara. Long ago, by druidic enchantment, it was sunk beneath the waves of the North Atlantic. Brian, one of the sons of Turenn, was tasked to find the cooking-spit of the women of Fincara.
P.W. Joyce, a scholar of Gaelic myth, wrote in 1879:

Then Brian put on his water-dress, with his helmet of transparent crystal on his head, and, telling his brothers to await his return, he leaped over the side of the ship, and sank at once out of sight. He walked about for a fortnight down in the green salt sea, seeking for the island of Fincara; and at last he found it.

My story began before ever I heard this legend, but it immediately fitted with it, and Fincara gave its name to the Island of my invention. In another world, a parallel reality, perhaps Fincara remains above the waves, and one need not put on a diving suit to reach it.

Holding up a mirror

A historical novel written in a fantasy genre allows your imagination to invent your own world, to create other worlds, and worlds where a portal between them is possible. And that gives a writer scope to hold up a mirror to aspects of the world we live in today. My world of ‘the Island’ presents a Celtic setting that shares something of our common history and traditions, but also diverges. The diversions create the gap that can be filled with fantasy. I was living in Scotland when I completed my first draft of The Seaborne, and the Celtic culture that formed in my imagination is closest to that of the Gael. Then I moved to Wales. There is a long history of the interweaving of Welsh and Irish culture and at one time it would have been commonplace for people to speak both languages.

Facing challenges

It's the appearance on the Island of a present-day Londoner that creates the link to the everyday world we all share. The world he finds himself in is pre-Industrial; even medieval. The community of Caerpadraig is largely self-sufficient, but with links to the rest of the Island. Only their priest has been on the mainland. The people are tough and capable. They live in a hard world where sickness and childbirth may often lead to an early death, a storm at sea may mean a fisherman never comes home and a poor harvest would be a very serious matter. The need to face these challenges binds the community together as a mutually cooperative whole. While each individual must face their own joys and sorrows, triumphs and disappointments, by and large they are happy. They enjoy the closeness they feel within their community, and are supported by a rich tradition of story, song and dance and a spirituality formed of a mix of Druidical tradition and Christian story.