Fiona Samson

Associations
[please refer to the association charts page for explanation of solid, versus dotted line links - between associates as well as family]

Fiona appears in every graphic from Berlin Game onwards, shown always by solid line link as married to Bernard Samson and parent to Billy and Sally. Fiona is additionally linked to sister Tessa Kosinski and to their father David Kimber-Hutchinson (‘Millionaire & bigot’ and ‘Manipulative, wealthy businessman’) whereas his wife - presumed identical with Fiona's mother - remains unlinked in the charts, as well as unnamed and barely referenced in the books.

In the table for Berlin Game (as well as for Faith) Silas Gaunt is referred to as “Uncle” to Fiona Samson’ however, in the graphic for Spy Sinker, he is described instead as ‘Cousin of Fiona Samson’. Berlin Game is the sole chart where even a dotted line connects the two of them.

Initially Fiona is described as ‘Senior Staff London Central’. From Mexico Set onwards she becomes Head of the KGB’s Berlin Unit or, by Sinker, ‘''Senior KGB Exec. in Berlin''’. As such she has dotted line links to Moscow Central and, in most charts, to Erich Stinnes. For London Match Fiona also shares a dotted line link with Pavel Moskvin (‘Hard-line KGB Colonel’). Then for Spy Sinker, the novel written from Fiona’s own perspective, she is similarly linked with Hubert Renn, her ‘Marxist Secretary’. Two further dotted line links in this table are with Martin Euan Pryce-Hughes (her ‘KGB liaison’ earlier in the tale) and Harry Kennedy (‘Assigned to watch Fiona Samson’).

Commentary
At the start of the Samson series Fiona is 35 years old and ‘at the wheel of the red Porsche her father had bought her.’ Her upbringing then is one of privilege, although she offers no shortage of talent too. Admittedly through the eyes of her husband, Fiona had graduated from Oxford University ‘with all the expected brilliant results in philosophy, politics and economics…and done all those things that her contemporaries thought smart: she studied Russian at the Sorbonne while perfecting the French accent necessary for upper-class young Englishwomen; she’d done a short cookery course at the Cordon Bleu; worked for an art dealer; crewed for a transatlantic yacht race; and written speeches for a man who’d narrowly failed to become  a Liberal Member of Parliament’ [quotes Berlin Game chap 4].

Fiona appears conflicted as a mother. Bernard assesses ‘There was no quicker way of upsetting her than to suggest the children were in any way deprived’. Indeed, she questions his need once more to head undercover into East Berlin: ‘…''what about what you owe me? And what you owe Billy and Sally?’ [quotes Berlin Game'' chap 4], although it is a challenge which may contain more than an element of self-reproach. On the other hand [……….TBC]

Naturally, the early 1980s remains an era rife with male chauvinism. After lunch Silas Gaunt dismisses the females present, including Fiona: ‘''Walk down to the river…men have to swear and belch now and again. And we’ll smoke and talk shop…Go and look after the children’ [Berlin Game'' chap 4]. While, inevitably, there are multiple agendas playing out, the instruction is clearly not an unusual but one which prevents Fiona from participating in work-related decision-making with her fellow, male senior staff. In such a context there can be little doubt that - in addition to her talents, above – Fiona has had to work hard in order to attain her position in London Central.

It is unknown whether the art dealer Fiona worked for is connected to Silas Gaunt, who has ‘a partnership in a Bond Street antique shop’. Regardless, we learn that Silas’ links to the Samson family has resulted in son, Billy, becoming his godchild and that ‘We saw a lot of him’ [both quotes Berlin Game chap 4] – please see Silas’ own page for a fuller summary of his relationship to Fiona, including discussion of the ambiguity around whether 'Uncle Silas’ is actually family, and plot implications surrounding this.

From the beginning of the trilogies it appears Fiona has only a passing relationship with Werner Volkmann, her husband’s best friend. For example Werner implies to Bernard that he is only loosely aware of her current status: ‘''I forgot that old Silas Gaunt was related to Fiona. I hear she is very important in the Department nowadays''’. Werner does however express admiration for Fiona ‘She was nice to me that time when I had to work inside for a couple of months’ [both Berlin Game chap 1].

Before Fiona departs for overseas, rumours circulate that she is having an affair with Bret Rensselaer. But is this a convenient fiction to mask the true reason they are spending regular time together or is the author dropping several hints, not least to her husband, that Fiona is indeed having an affair - such as in chapter 2 of Berlin Game when Bernard returns home late from the airport? ‘''her long hair was hardly disarranged and the frilly nightdress was not rumpled…it was like going into a different house and a different bedroom, to a different woman…There was a tumbler containing whisky…It was typical of her to prepare a treat so carefully…then forget about it…She’d combed her hair and smoothed the sheet on my side of the bed…I was close to her now and I could smell perfume. Had she put it on just for me, I wondered….’I phoned you last night,’ I said. ‘It was two o’clock in the morning but there was no reply.’ ‘I was here, asleep,’ she said. She was awake and alert now''.’