Background
Born in Upton, Nottinghamshire, England, Fiona was into sports as a child, especially gymnastics, horse-racing and ice-skating. She attended Lowes Wong Junior School in nearby Southwell before going to The Rodney School in Kirklington.
Later, Fiona worked as an administrator for the RAF where she able to gain experience in flying and gliding. She also opened her own gymnasium, but tragedy struck when her husband, Bill, was killed in a road accident.
In 1992, Fiona met her present husband, Mike, who introduced her to outdoor sports such as mountaineering. Mike also had ambitions to cross the South Pole overland, and these plans encouraged Fiona to follow suit.
Read more about this topic: Fiona Thornewill
Famous quotes containing the word background:
“In the true sense one’s native land, with its background of tradition, early impressions, reminiscences and other things dear to one, is not enough to make sensitive human beings feel at home.”
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940)
“Silence is the universal refuge, the sequel to all dull discourses and all foolish acts, a balm to our every chagrin, as welcome after satiety as after disappointment; that background which the painter may not daub, be he master or bungler, and which, however awkward a figure we may have made in the foreground, remains ever our inviolable asylum, where no indignity can assail, no personality can disturb us.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“They were more than hostile. In the first place, I was a south Georgian and I was looked upon as a fiscal conservative, and the Atlanta newspapers quite erroneously, because they didn’t know anything about me or my background here in Plains, decided that I was also a racial conservative.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)