NOW IN PRINT!
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COMPANY WIFE

What makes a survivor?

Born in Quebec in 1850, Maggie’s life-story is one of overcoming hardships with courage and resilience. At fifteen, her family lost their wealth when her father died deeply in debt.  As result of this reversal of fortune, she found herself, at seventeen, letting go of her own dreams and entering into an arranged marriage. By age twenty-four she had borne five children. 

By age twenty-five, she and her children, the youngest an infant of just three months, endured an arduous trek of a thousand miles into the wilderness of northern Ontario, following her husband to his new job posting with the Hudson’s Bay Company.

For almost two decades, Maggie lived in isolation in a cabin in the vast loneliness of the north woods, where she bore five more children and fulfilled the role of an HBC Company wife. She was forced to endure the humiliation and insult of her husband’s countless liaisons with other women. Over the years of their marriage, her husband, already a domineering man, became physically abusive to the point that she began to fear for her life and the lives of the children.

At age forty-four, she and the children were uprooted again in her husband’s relentless pursuit of promotion with the Company and they made the long journey back to Quebec.  

​How did she survive?

​ Read More....

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Watch for upcoming news on final publication date and book launch information.

AUGUST 2020:
​EXCITING NEWS

Helen's latest book, a True Crime legal thriller, A QUESTION OF INTENT, is now in the final stages of publication. 
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A QUESTION OF INTENT is the true story of a little girl’s dismal life and the events that followed her tragic death. The author had access to the transcripts of the Preliminary Inquiry and the subsequent trial and appeals, and many related supporting documents. This is the story of a four-year-old who was beaten to death in the name of discipline. Susan’s story is one of physical punishment that began when she was an infant of five months and ended with her death just days before her fifth birthday. There was no doubt that she was physically abused and that the discipline was excessive, but the question that became the core of the trial was whether or not her parents had intended to kill her.

The legal proceedings that form the basis of this book are fascinating. The reader will be enthralled by the courtroom arguments as the Crown Prosecutors, who charged her mother and father with murder, sought justice for Susan while the defence team sought to defend her parents from this terrible accusation.

Some readers may find the verdict and sentence unsatisfactory. Others may conclude that the justice system operated as it should have. Was this child’s death intentional? The author does not attempt to second guess the results of the trial, but simply presents the evidence and the legal arguments, leaving the reader to decide.