A Special Reading

Lawrence Hill, author of Book of Negroes as well as many other books, had a reading in the MacBride Museum last night and half of our Book Club members were able to attend. The room was packed to the rafters - standing room only, so we weren't the only ones interested in hearing this very talented author. He read from his new, and as yet unpublished, manuscript. The story is about a type of people that piques Lawrence's interest - refugees ...aliens ... in other words, people who have no country to call their own; people who have no passports so cannot travel, no social insurance numbers so cannot legally work, etc. Now this sounds like a sombre subject, but the two excerpts he read was anything but sombre and I for one cannot wait to read his new book.

In about a year's time, he wants to work on another historical fiction about the building of the Alcan Highway, short for Alaska/Canada Highway (the Alaska Highway) during World War II. His interest here is the mixture of people involved in the building of the highway (esp the blacks and the Indians) and the mixture of the countries causing a highway to be built in the first place - Americans, Canadian, Japanese ... He has begun his research on this subject during his five week stay in the north (writing in the Berton House in Dawson City and touring around to communities in the Yukon with his readings).

He had a lengthy question period after his readings and his responses were very thorough, encompassing all aspects of the questions and spiced with personal reflections and humour.

It was a tremendously enjoyable evening in which we, the public, garnered a good insight into the author.

And yes, Miranda Hill of Project Bookmark Canada, is Lawrence's wife.