Morgan Llywelyn
Morgan Llywelyn was born in New York City but her father was Irish, born in County Clare. Her mother was Irish and Welsh. Thus, Llywelyn qualified for dual Irish-American citizenship. As a child, she developed an abiding passion for horses. By the time she was sixteen, she was showing horses at championship level throughout the United States. She married Charles Winter in Denver, Colorado, and they had one son, Sean. In 1976, she was shortlisted for the United States Olympic Team in Dressage, missing the final cut by .05 points. To distract her from such a major disappointment, her mother interested her in researching the family history. Her first novel, The Wind From Hastings, resulted from that research. Published by Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston, the book was an Alternate Main Selection for the Doubleday Book Club.