Angela Thompson Smith was born in Bristol, England, and grew up in the nearby village of Shirehampton. One branch of her family, the Porters, can be traced back over 500 years in the same area. Through a series of fictional stories, River of Passion traces the Porter family through many aeons, starting in the Bronze Age, where her earliest ancestor meets Merlin at Stonehenge, and closing in 2008, as the village suffers a catastrophe that sets the river free to run again. The themes running through River of Passion are the village, the river Avon, a sacred healing spring, a ring, and individuals who rise above their predestined place in society.