In 2000, an extended visit to Florence changed her working life. In what she acknowledged was something of a midlife crisis * 4 Her old passion for history was reignited, a she started to research the impact of the renaissance on the city in the 1490’s. The result was The Birth of Venus, the first of a trilogy of novels about women’s lives in the Italian renaissance. The commercial success of these books in America and elsewhere (*5) allowed Dunant to devote herself full time to writing and research concentrating of the most current work being done in renaissance studies, most particularly concerning the lives of women. (*6) The novel Sacred Hearts, a story of nuns in an enclosed convent in 16th Ferrara led to collaboration with the early music group, Musica Secreta: a theatrical adaptation using the music of the period and with a choir, performed in churches and at early music festivals around Britain.